An investigation into the deaths of two teenage girls found
hanging from a mango tree in northern India has concluded that they committed
suicide and that there's no evidence of rape, sexual assault or murder,
according to a report released by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on
Thursday.
The two
girls, who were cousins, were found dead in May in a remote village in the
Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh state.
During
the initial stages of the investigation, an autopsy report confirmed the two
girls had been raped and strangled. Continue..
The
teenagers' families filed a complaint accusing a group of men of rape and
murder. But forensic reports commissioned by federal investigators subsequently
said the girls were not raped, and charges against the men were dropped.
The case
caused widespread revulsion in India and beyond, especially after the brutal
gang rape of a girl on a public bus in New Delhi in December 2012.
That
incident energized activists and women generally, with government officials
promising action to ensure that girls and women feel safe.
Law
enforcement agency: No male DNA found
The
findings of the investigation in the Uttar Pradesh case were outlined at a news
conference Thursday.
Kanchan
Prasad, a spokeswoman for Central Bureau of Investigation, said they were based
on about 40 scientific reports.
Investigators
found no stress marks or traces of semen on either of the bodies, and no trace
of male DNA was found on the girls' clothes or anywhere on their bodies, she
said.
The
report will be submitted to Badaun Court next week, she said, and there will be
no further investigation by the CBI.
All five
of the accused men were released on bail after the decision not to file
charges, and they remain on bail. The court will decide whether it will take
the case forward.
Lie-detector
tests were conducted on the accused and the relatives. While the results of the
accused were fine, those of the relatives indicated deception, she said.
A
top-level CBI official, who took questions from journalists but declined to be
named, said it was "medically proven that it was a suicide."
Forensic
experts also had determined that the mango tree from which the girls were found
hanging was the easiest in the grove to climb and that the girls would have
been able to do so, he said.
Family
pressure suggested
Asked
about the discrepancy between the initial autopsy and subsequent forensic
reports, the official said that the investigators involved in the first autopsy
report were not experts and had mistakenly concluded there had been a sexual
assault.
The
investigators did not know why the girls had committed suicide but suggested it
might be because the elder girl was under pressure from her family over a
relationship with a man from a different caste -- who was one of those accused
in the case.
"Her
family didn't approve of this and she was under pressure. Being an immature
girl living in a very conservative part of India, it must have been hard for
her," the official said.
It's not
known why the younger girl would also have killed herself in this case, but the
two cousins were very close, he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment