NEW DELHI/BADAUN: Rejecting the rape and murder theory of two Badaun girls whose bodies were found hanging in a Mango orchard, CBI Thursday claimed that the teenaged victims had committed suicide, evoking sharp criticism from their families who sought the Prime Minister's intervention for a fair probe.
CBI sources said they will soon be filing its final report recommending closure of the case before the court where it will give all its findings.
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The agency is also likely to recommend action against Uttar Pradesh police officers for "erroneous" probe.
In Badaun, the families of the girls - who were cousins - rejected the CBI conclusion. They sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure an independent and fair probe.
"The CBI has not explained why they would commit suicide.
If we don't get justice we will kill ourselves," said the father of one of the girls.
"How is it possible that the girls could have committed suicide together from a tall tree...I appeal to Modiji to ensure that we get justice," he said.
The girls, who were 14 and 15, were found hanging from a mango tree near their village on May 28, a day after they were reported missing.
CBI sources said the agency will put forth details of alleged destruction of evidence against three family members and a relative Nazru in its report but it will be left to the court to take a final view.
The agency, which could not exhume the bodies for fresh post-mortem examination from graves because of overflowing Ganga, claimed to have based its "conclusions" on the basis of forensic reports received from three-member multi-agency medical board, Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, FSL Gandhinagar among others.
"The medical report from multi-agency medical board, corroborated by team of doctors which conducted first post-mortem during their examination, conclusively says that girls had committed suicide," a senior CBI official said.
The report received from CDFD showed that there was no presence of male DNA on the clothes of the girls and there was no presence of female DNA on the clothes or body of prime suspect in the case thus ruling out any sign of violence or sexual assault, the sources said.
The ligature mark on the neck of girls' bodies was a unique sign which indicated suicide, the sources said.
They claimed the girls committed suicide as the affair of elder one with a local boy was exposed while younger one who was in the know and also kept vigil while the couple was meeting too felt stigmatised.
Protrusion of the tongue, presence of fecal matter in perineum were unique signs of suicide committed by the girls, the sources said.
"Based on around 40 scientific reports, CBI has concluded that the two minor girls in the Badaun case had not been raped and murdered as had been alleged in the FIR. Investigation has concluded that it is a case of suicide," CBI spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said here today.
The incident sparked international outrage with the Samajwadi Party government in the state coming under fire on the issue of law and order situation.
Five people including--Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav (all three brothers) and constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav--were named as prime accused by the state police for alleged rape and murder of the girls.
As the visuals of girls bodies hanging from a Mango tree were beamed across the globe, Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki Moon had also issued a statement expressing concern on the law and order situation of the state.
CBI sources said the team of doctors which conducted first post-mortem had mistaken menstural blood of the younger victim to be a sign of sexual assault thus giving a botched up report.
Similarly, the sources said, bodies of girls were kept hanging for nearly 12 hours before the police was allowed to take their possession and got post-mortem done.
Hanging of bodies for such a long time also resulted in accumulation of blood in genetelia which was also mistaken by the post-mortem team to be sign of sexual assault by them.
"When the team which did first post-mortem was questioned by multi-agency medical board on the basis of video recording of the post-mortem, they admitted that conclusions drawn by them were not correct," the officer said.
A senior CBI officer said the exhumation of bodies could have been an additional point in the investigation but it was not a limiting factor in the investigations.