Two sisters were found hanging 52 days apart after being sexually abused in Kerala.

A village in Kerala's Palakkad district got a huge shock when 9-year-old girl was found hanging in her home last week. A postmortem examination revealed that she had been sexually abused. Exactly 52 days ago, her elder sister, a 14-year-old, was seen hanging at the same spot. The police said she had been sexually abused as well. The investigation in that case is still not over. The police are yet to find out whether it was a case of suicide or murder.Their distraught mother has alleged that her elder daughter was sexually abused several times by a relative. But he had not been allowed inside the house since. "I have seen her being abused and he was not allowed to come to the house after that," the mother told the media.The 9-year-old's body was found on the evening of March 4. Her parents - daily wagers - were away from home and returned to find their daughter's body.The family said she had been very close to her elder sister. A student of Class IV at the village school, she had even given a statement to the police about seeing two men leave their house the day her sister was found dead.

"The postmortem report shows they were sexually abused," said Ajith Kumar, Inspector-General of Police. "Earlier, we had considered it only as a case of unnatural death". The abuse had been even more vicious in case of the younger girl, and the police will register a case of rape and unnatural sex, he added.Suspecting procedural lapses, the State Human Rights Commission has asked for a detailed report from the police within a month.