india

Updated: Nov 27, 2014 12:09 IST

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has concluded after a five-month probe that the two teenaged Badaun cousins had committed suicide, putting to rest reports that the duo was gang-raped and murdered.

“Yes, we have cracked the Badaun case. Our probe found that the two girls had committed suicide and weren’t murdered. The local police had erroneously conducted their probe along the lines that the sisters were killed,” CBI director Ranjit Sinha told HT on Wednesday.

The agency is likely to disclose its findings by Friday.

According to the FIR of the state police, the two Dalit cousins, aged 14 and 15 years, were allegedly gang-raped and murdered and their bodies were found hanging from a mango tree a day after they went missing on May 27 at Katra village in Badaun.

The CBI, which took over the probe from the state police in June, found that the two were not sexually assaulted or killed either.

A senior CBI officer said the agency found that the sisters allegedly plotted their own end “because of family pressure owing to disapproval of their friendship with a villager, who was under the scanner but was later cleared”.

Asked if the agency was investigating the family’s role in abetting the suicides, CBI chief Sinha said: “The girls had committed suicide. I don’t want to say anything at this juncture.”

The CBI also ruled out the role of five men who were arrested by the state police in the case.

HT reported on July 23 that the CBI has found that one of the girls rang up a suspect around 300 times since 2013.

The forensic report submitted to the CBI by the Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) says the two girls weren’t “sexually assaulted or raped”. A medical board corroborated the findings.

The CBI insisted on the basis of its field investigation and polygraph or lie-detection tests that the main witness, Nazru, a distant relative of the cousins, gave fake details to frame key accused, Pappu Yadav, and four others.

“Nazru as well as three relatives of the girls admitted during the polygraph tests that he has lied to the local police,” the CBI officer said. “Nazru has said he had seen Pappu along with three others drag away the two cousins. It was a lie.”

The officer said Pappu had met the girls around 9pm on May 27 near Nazru’s residence on the outskirts of the village.

“Nazru accosted them and a scuffle ensued with Pappu. After that, Pappu left and the two girls ran in the direction of the fields. Nazru went to the girls’ home to complain.”

The police used Nazru’s version to arrest Pappu and four others within hours after the girls’ bodies were found hanging from a tree.