Badaun, Nov 8 (IANS): Just four days after a man was booked for kidnapping a minor, his mother and sister were found dead inside their house in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district.
While the police have claimed that it was a suicide case, the family alleged that the 52-year-old woman and her daughter (20) were murdered and then hung by the accused man to make it look like they killed themselves.
The bodies have been sent for the pos-mortem and the reports are awaited, the police said, adding no suicide note was found in the victims’ possession.
Locals have claimed that the women took the extreme step after “being harassed by police who would regularly visit their house in connection with their probe into the kidnapping case”.
The police, however, have denied the charges.
The man and the minor girl he allegedly kidnapped remain missing.
“The accused’s father rejected the claim that his wife and daughter had committed suicide. He alleged that they were murdered and then hanged by the accused to make it look like suicide. The father alleged that the family members of the girl who eloped with his son were behind the deaths and demanded action against them,” said the village pradhan.
According to the police, the girl’s father had lodged an FIR on November 4, stating that his 17-year-old daughter had gone to the market the previous day and had not returned home since then.
“While searching for my daughter, I came to know that a neighbour kidnapped my daughter and his younger brother helped him in the kidnapping,” the girl’s father alleged.
Based on the complaint, a kidnapping case was registered against both brothers at the area police station.
Police said that the complainant and the accused are OBCs.
“This was the second time when the accused has kidnapped a girl from the village. The incident made villagers upset and they distanced themselves from the family. Feeling ashamed of the accused, both women took the extreme step,” said the SHO.
“We are looking into the role of the younger brother in the case. He has not been arrested till now."