india

Updated: Jul 30, 2019 09:35 IST

Two girls — aged seven and nine — who were found dead in their house near Pune on Sunday had been sexually assaulted hours before their deaths, police said on Monday. Investigators said the girl’s father was the prime suspect in the sexual assault case, while they believe that the mother killed her children before committing suicide.

The bodies of the girls, students of Class 2 and Class 3, were found hanging from a hook, along with their six-year-old brother in Bhosari, Maharashtra, on Sunday evening, police said. Their mother was found hanged in an adjacent room of their two-room house.

“We encountered injury marks on their bodies, which pointed towards sexual assault. We had the doctors confirm it,” said senior police inspector Shankar Awtade of Bhosari police station.

“We are questioning the father of the girls as a suspect in the matter,” he added.

The doctors said that post-mortem report suggested that the girls were subjected to sexual assault hours before their death, according to police. Their bodies were discovered on Sunday evening between 4:30pm-5pm, when the father, who told police he left the house at 10:30am, returned home.

As the Bhosari police station did not have a female officer on duty, a female police sub-inspector from the Pimpri police station was called in to help with the initial examination during which injury marks were spotted on the girls’ body, police officials said. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Smita Patil of Zone-1 of Pimpri-Chinchwad police was also present during the examination, said inspector Awtade.

The bodies were taken for post-mortem at the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) hospital.

The girls’ father is a fruit-seller who had moved to Bhosari with his family four days before the incident. Having sold fruits in Warje and Talegaon Dabhade area of Pune, the family was in financial trouble, said police inspector Devendra Chavan of Bhosari police station.

The woman had also lost her father a few days before the incident. This led the police to initially suspect that she committed suicide due to financial issues. However, the sexual assault of the girls has now opened a new line of investigation in the case.

A case under Sections 302, 376 of the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Pocso) Act has been registered at Bhosari police station.