Lakhimpur girl was gang raped: NCW

Lakhimpur-Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), July 01: Contradicting two autopsy reports, the National Commission for Women (NCW) said here Thursday that the minor girl found dead in a police station complex in this Uttar Pradesh district had indeed been gangraped.

“Not only one, several people raped the girl and brutally killed her. Thereafter, the girl’s body was hanged from a tree to give a suicide angle to the incident,” NCW acting chairperson Yasmeen Abrar told reporters in Lakhimpur-Kheri, some 140 km from Lucknow.

“No matter with which theory one comes up…it is very clear that the girl was gangraped and then murdered,” added Abrar, demanding strict action against all those involved in the crime.

The 14-year-old girl’s body was found hanging from a tree June 10 night inside the Nighasan police station premises in Lakhimpur-Kheri district.

Leading a panel of the NCW, Abrar was here to meet the girl’s family in Nighasan in connection with the commission’s investigations into her death.

Abrar’s visit comes a day after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi met the girl’s family and supported their demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case.

Police initially dismissed the girl’s death as suicide, but a second autopsy confirmed that the girl was strangulated. However, it did not confirm the rape – an allegation being made by the victim’s mother.

The girl’s family has been demanding a CBI probe into the case, alleging that she was raped by policemen. At present, police are investigating the case.

As many as 11 policemen and three doctors who conducted the first autopsy have been suspended.

—Agencies