india

Updated: Jan 07, 2019 12:56 IST

The bodies of the two teenage sisters were found hanging from a tree at Dhumnadipur village under Gunnaur police station in Sambhal district on Sunday.

According to police, the family said the girls might have taken the step as they were reportedly scolded over some domestic work.

“Family members of the victims– Kavita, 18, and Seema, 19 – said both the girls had gone out of their house on Saturday, and on returning were scolded by their mother for not giving fodder to the cattle. They went missing at night, when their father Ramvir Singh and mother Kiran Devi were sleeping,” Gunnaur circle officer, Gamleshwar Biltoriya said.

The bodies were found by the father, who woke up in the morning and saw his daughters hanging from the tree near their house.

However, villagers are alleging that this could be a case of honour killing, said police.

“The claim of their parents that girls committed suicide after they were scolded by them was not convincing. Both cannot climb the tree, which is tall, to commit suicide. Police were investing all angles and also whether she was killed for honour,” said Yamuna Prasad, Sambhal superintendent of police (SP).

The SP said that police with forensic team have collected ropes and hair clips from the spot and investigating the matter. “Exact cause of their death can be known only after report of the postmortem,” Prasad said, adding their bodies had been sent for the autopsy.

Police were also investing the suspected actions of their parents who tried to perform last rites of the bodies hurriedly without informing the police, besides their refusal to send the bodies for postmortem and attempt to burn the rope used for hanging, besides destroying other evidences from the spot, the police official said.