BAREILLY: On the order of a local Badaun court, the CBI on Thursday submitted evidence it gathered on the two minor girls – cousins -- found hanging from a mango tree at Katra Shahdatganj village in May last year. In its 91-page report, which included the medical evidence and the closure report, the investigating agency said the girls committed suicide, ashamed that the relationship that one of them had been in with Pappu Yadav, one of the men earlier accused in the case, had been exposed. The agency said the younger of the two sisters was also desirous of a relationship with the same man. Both girls committed suicide in shame , on being discovered by an uncle.

The kin of the two girls have also received a copy of the CBI report. The girls’ family said they would contest the report in court.

The CBI said the older of the two girls, 15 years old at the time, was in a love affair with Pappu Yadav. Her 14-year-old cousin was also interested in a sexual relationship with Pappu Yadav, the CBI report said. On the night of May 27, 2014, the CBI said the younger of the two girls had called Pappu Yadav to a nearby field.

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Advocate Gyan Singh Shakya, who is representing the kin of the two girls in court, said, “The closure report says when the cousins were meeting Pappu in the field, their uncle Babu Ram alias Nazru arrived at the spot. The elder girl was half-naked at the time, and Nazru spotter her like that. A scuffle occurred between Nazru and Pappu. The two men then rushed off in different directions, and the girls were left alone in the fields. The two sisters, ashamed about being found out, committed suicide.”

The lawyer added that the closure report was the opinion of the CBI, not quite based on the facts of the case. “We will study the medical report and contest the findings. We believe the girls were murdered.”

The kin of two minor sisters have also received a copy of the documents submitted in court, including the closure report, the reports of forensic tests like DNA, polygraph (lie-detection), and the post-mortem report.

The girls’ kin had earlier approached the court seeking to know on what grounds the CBI concluded that the girls had committed suicide. Responding to their petition, the additional district judge (under POCSO Act) on Tuesday ordered the agency to submit all evidence in the court in two days. The court had also directed CBI to provide the medical evidence used to arrive at the conclusion to the girls’ kin.

Refuting the findings of the CBI, the father of the younger of the two girls said, “The agency has cooked up the story. The girls were neither in an affair with that man, nor were they at all interested in one. They were murdered. We will, if we need to, go to the Supreme Court.”

The girls’ family had alleged that the two had been kidnapped and murdered by five young men in the village. The CBI, closing investigations, had dropped charges against all five men -- brothers Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav, and two police constables, Chhatrapal Gangwar and Sarvesh Yadav.

Last December, soon after the investigating agency filed its closure report, a group of foreign journalists along with a TV crew gathered near the mango tree from which the two minor girls were discovered hanging on May 28 last year. The journalists enlisted the support of volunteers from the village, girls in the same age range as the two that died, and asked them to climb the mango tree. None of the nearly 10 girls who volunteered to climb could manage to get anywhere near as high as the branches from which the two cousins were found hanging. The volunteers could not clamber higher than some of the lower branches on the mango tree.

