Two held for rape, murder of Unnao girl
Police said the victim was allegedly in a relationship with one of the accused and they killed her as she was pressuring the former to marry her.
By: Express News Service
Lucknow | Updated: February 28, 2023 04:20 IST
The victim and both the accused belong to the Dalit community. Both the accused are 19 years old, police said.
Four days after a 15-year-old girl’s body was found near a liquor shop, Unnao police on Sunday arrested two youths for allegedly raping and killing her.
Police said the victim was allegedly in a relationship with one of the accused and the two killed her as she was pressuring the former to marry her. The victim and both the accused belong to the Dalit community, they added. Both the accused are 19 years old, police said.
The victim’s body was found on a road on Wednesday night. According to reports, police had earlier declared that the girl had died in a road accident, but they later registered a case of rape and murder after her family staged a protest.
“The prime accused was in an alleged relationship with the girl. During interrogation, he told the police that on Wednesday night, the girl had come to meet him while her family members were asleep. He took the girl to a secluded place and allegedly raped her,” the Cicle Officer (CO) of the concerned area said.
“A few minutes later, the girl’s uncle called him and asked him about his whereabouts. He got scared and told the girl to go back home. However, the girl refused to do so as she was afraid that her family would beat her up. He alleged that she started pressuring him to elope and marry her,” he added.
“The accused claimed that he then called his friend and asked him to meet him. When his friend arrived, the accused got out of the car while the girl was sitting inside the vehicle and hatched a plan to kill her. He told his friend to run his car over her when she got out of the former’s car. When the victim got out of the car, the other accused allegedly mowed her down with his car. The prime accused told the police that he also ran over his car on the girl,” said the CO.
“The accused told the police that they ran over the victim twice to make her death look like a road accident,” he said.
Meanwhile, the girl’s family started looking for her when they didn’t find her on her bed. A few hours later, they got to know about a girl’s body being found near a liquor shop, which was located around 800 metres away from their house. Police said the victim’s face was unrecognisable due to her injuries and her body was sent for a post-mortem examination. The family identified her body through her clothes and earrings.
On Thursday, the family staged a protest demanding that a rape and murder FIR be lodged and the accused be arrested. They called off the protest when Unnao police registered a case against unidentified persons on charges of rape, kidnapping and murder.
The CO said the youth who was in an alleged relationship with the girl owned a tour and travel agency. His friend who helped him kill the girl was a resident of a neighbouring village, he added.
On Sunday, police also seized two cars which were allegedly used in the crime. “Police found blood stains on the two cars which were found to be of the accused persons. The blood samples have been sent to a forensic laboratory for DNA profiling and further examination. The recovered cars have also been sent for a technical examination and its report is awaited,” said the officer, adding that the recovered cars belong to the prime accused and one of his relatives.
On Friday, Samajwadi Party MLA Lalji Verma and BSP MLA Umshankar Singh raised the death of the Dalit girl in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and demanded a detailed probe by an independent agency to ensure a “fair investigation”.
