Six arrested for rape, murder of minor Dalit sisters in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri

The six accused were arrested and charged under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. One of the accused was caught following an encounter.

Lakhimpur Kheri : A day after two minor Dalit sisters were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, police Thursday said they were allegedly raped and strangled before being hanged. They added six accused were arrested and charged under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. One of the accused was caught following an encounter, they also said.

The police identified the six accused as Chotu, Junaid, Suhail, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin and Arif. “All the accused and the girls belong to the same village. Chotu, son of Chetram, was known to the girls in the past and he was the one who had introduced the girls to three of the accused. Later, when the girls started forcing them for marriage, the accused strangulated and hanged them,” said Lakhimpur Kheri SP Sanjay Kumar. Both girls were raped before the murder, the police said.

The SP said that apart from Chotu alias Gautam, three of the other accused, who were acquainted with the girls, were identified as Suhail, son of Islamuddin, Hafizul Rehman alias Majhalka, and Junaid. “Junaid was arrested following an encounter on Thursday morning and he has a gunshot injury in one of his legs,” he said, adding that these three called two more of their friends from the same village – Karimuddin alias DD and Arif, son of Ahmad Hussain – to assist them in hanging the girls from the tree.