Lakhimpur Kheri rape-murder: Police may slap stringent NSA against six accused

Lakhimpur Kheri, Sep 16: The Uttar Pradesh Police is mulling over slapping the stringent National Security Act against the six people arrested for the rape and murder of two Dalit sisters in the state’s Lakhimpur Kheri. The sisters, aged 15 and 17, were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field on Wednesday evening. The National Security Act (NSA) allows the detention of people up to one year without any charge.

"We are mulling to impose the NSA on the six accused persons. Apart from this, DNA samples of the six accused and the two girls will also be sent for an examination," Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Suman told PTI on Friday. Suman said none of the accused is a minor, dismissing reports of the kin of some of them making the claim.

Meanwhile, an 11-member delegation of the Congress led by its MLAs Aradhna Mishra Mona, Virendra Chaudhary, former MP Zafar Ali Naqvi, former MLA Satish Ajmani and others visited the girls’ family to express their solidarity with them.

Nighasan's BJP legislator Shashank Verma along with BJP's district president Sunil Singh had visited the grief-stricken family on Thursday, telling them that the government would provide all aid and assistance to them.

The village on Friday looked calm and quiet, though the authorities have deployed adequate number of policemen to maintain peace there. Assistant District Government Counsel Brijesh Pandey said the accused were produced before a POCSO court, which sent them to a 14-day judicial custody.

District Magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh told reporters that a relief of Rs 8.25 lakh has been released in favour of the girls’ family.

A similar amount will be released soon, he said. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Thursday evening directed that a “pucca” house and agriculture land be given to the kin of the dead.

In a tweet in Hindi, the office of the UP Chief Minister said the matter will be effectively pursued in a fast-track court and the culprits will be punished within a month. The six men were arrested on Thursday. Police sources said the post-mortem report revealed that the girls were raped and then strangled. The bodies were found hanging about a kilometre away from their home on Wednesday.

Police had said according to the preliminary probe, the girls had left their home on Wednesday afternoon with two of the accused, Junaid and Sohail. The girl's mother had earlier alleged that they were abducted. The tragic incident has stirred politics in the state, which is readying for a five-day monsoon session of the legislative assembly from Monday.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have attacked the BJP government in the state over the incident. BJP leaders have hit back at the rivals for trying to "derive political mileage" out of the human tragedy.