Two Dalit teenage sisters were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field in Lalpur Majra Tamoli Purva village under the Nighasan police station on Wednesday evening. The incident sparked huge huge uproar across the region with locals coming on the streets and police had to cajole them to move back on the assurance that action would be taken.

On Thursday, the police arrested six men in this connection – Junaid, Sohail, Hafizur Rehman, Karimuddin, Arif and Chottu. The postmortem was conducted and the bodies of the two sisters were handed over to the family members. The police said, postmortem has confirmed strangulation after brutally gangrape the two girls.

“We have arrested Junaid, Sohail, Hafizur Rehman, Karimuddin, Arif and Chottu in an overnight operation,” said Superintendent of Police (SP), Lakhimpur Kheri, Sanjiv Suman. The SP informed that Junaid and Sohail were allegedly in a relationship with the two sisters, have confessed that they strangulated the girls after raping them”.

Speaking to the Press, the Additional Director General (ADG), Law & Order, Uttar Pradesh, Prashant Kumar said, “We have arrested six accused after conducting fast investigation as ordered. Such crimes should be dealt strictly and I request all to show sympathy towards the family. I feel the family members are satisfied with our probe as we have done everything as per their request. We have handed over the bodies to the family members after the postmortem”.

An FIR was registered under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he said.