UP seeks federal investigation into Indian gang-rape murders

KATRA SHAHADATGANJ: The leader of India’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) state on Saturday asked federal police to investigate the brutal gang-rape and murder of two girls found hanging from a mango tree, amid mounting public anger over their deaths.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav requested a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killings of the two low-caste cousins, whose bodies were discovered Wednesday.
Yadav’s call came as police said five men were arrested over the gang-rape and murder of the girls, aged 14 and 12, in impoverished Katra Shahadatganj village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
“The chief minister has decided to recommend a CBI probe into Badaun incident as demanded by family members,” an official statement said.
However, the families of the girls said earlier they had no faith in the impartiality of local police, accusing them of being “hand-in-glove” with the killers.
Television footage of the girls’ bodies hanging from the fruit tree fanned public anger over the case, the latest in a string of rapes in India to stir national outrage and international criticism.
Preliminary murder and gang-rape charges were filed against three men while two policemen face accusations of being criminal accessories, Badaun district police superintendent Atul Saxena told AFP.
“Rape of both girls has been confirmed. Cause of death was asphyxia,” he said.
“These men first raped the victims and then hanged them,” Saxena said.
Both girls “were still alive when they were hanged,” added Saxena, whose Badaun district lies 300 kilometers from state capital Lucknow.
Yadav drew public ire on Friday for replying to reporters who asked him about a sharp rise in rape cases in the state with the words “It’s not as if you faced any danger.”
The farm-laboring relatives of the cousins told AFP police could have “saved” the girls but refused to help when because they were low caste.
“She was my everything, my world — and now my world has come to an end,” the grief-stricken father of one victim said. The alleged attackers were from a higher caste than the girls.
There is a long history of women and girls from India’s lower castes — especially those who are Dalits, previously known as “untouchables” — being sexually abused by people from higher castes.
“These policemen didn’t act for hours when they could have saved two young lives. Why is caste everything?” asked the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons.