Unnao girls laid to rest in their family field under heavy security blanket

Unnao (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 19 The last rites of two teenage girls, found dead in an agriculture field in Babuhara village of Asoha police station area, were performed here on Friday morning amid tight security arrangements. Three girls — aged 16, 15 and 14 — were found in a field by the villagers on Wednesday night when they did not return after leaving their house to take fodder for cattle.

The local residents had rushed the teenagers, who are all related to each other, to a hospital where two of them were declared brought dead. The 16-year-old girl was rushed to a district hospital and later referred to a Kanpur healthcare facility where she is presently undergoing treatment, police said.

The bodies of Komal (15) and Kajal (14) were buried in their agriculture fields in the presence of senior officials and police personnel in large numbers. The bodies were brought to their village after a post-mortem was done on Thursday but the last rites could not be performed on the day, police said.

The district unit president of BJP Raj Kishore Rawat and local MLA Anil Singh were present during the funeral. The district administration had made elaborate arrangements with heavy deployment of security personnel and barricades being installed covering about one kilometre on the four paths reaching the village with a magistrate-level official posted at every barricade to check people. Personnel from six police stations were also deployed for cover.

Director General of Police Hitesh Chandra Awasthi had said on Thursday, “The post-mortem of the two girls was done by a panel of doctors and no injury before death or external injuries were found on their bodies.The cause of death could not be ascertained and viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis.”

“We are taking help of forensic experts and looking into all possibilities,” the DGP had said.

A medical bulletin by the Kanpur hospital treating the third girl had noted that it was a suspected case of poisoning. Apart from Section 302 (murder), the FIR also lists Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, related to causing disappearance of evidence. The case mentioning the two sections was lodged on the basis of the family’s complaint, the police had stated.