Badaun, Uttar Pradesh: Family members of the two teenage girls who were found hanging from a tree in May last year at a village here has moved a court here challenging the closure report filed by CBI in the case. A protest petition has been filed in the court of Additional District Judge (POCSO Act) Anil Kumar, said Kokab Hasan Naqvi, lawyer of the family, while claiming that there are a number of points on which the report could be dismissed. He said that they had come prepared for arguments in the court but CBI had moved an application that its lawyer could not appear on Thursday.

"We have seen CBI's closure report. There are a number of points on which the report will be dismissed," he said.

CBI had filed the closure report on December 11 claiming that the girls had committed suicide and they were neither raped nor murdered. Later, on February 5, the agency submitted evidences in a POCSO court to corroborate its "closure report".

The agency had submitted 91 page file. It contained 34 page closure report, two pages each of the post mortem examination of both the girls, four pages containing the list of witnesses, while the remaining pages had statements of the witnesses, DNA, forensic and status reports among others.

The agency had filed its report saying there was no forensic or circumstantial evidence suggesting rape and murder as alleged in the FIR registered by Uttar Pradesh Police after the girls' bodies were found hanging from a tree in Katra village on May 28 last year.

The CBI had said that the girls committed suicide fearing retribution as the elder girl's affair with a local boy from a different caste had come to light. The girls' families had alleged that they were kidnapped and murdered by five youths from the village. The incident sparked an outcry in the country and abroad with questions were raised over the law and order situation in UP.

The agency had closed the investigation after dropping charges against five persons, Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav (brothers) and police constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav named as prime accused by the state police in the case.

Source: DC