Police said the deaths were related to a relationship that had broken down.
Lucknow:
A man and a boy have been arrested for the deaths of two girls in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
A massive investigation was launched after three 16-, 15- and 14-year-old girls, all cousins, were found in a field hours after their family realized they were missing. Two of them died in hospital and a third is in critical condition.
Police said the deaths were related to a relationship that had broken down.
The arrested man allegedly wanted to marry the 17-year-old who was being treated at the hospital.
The two became close last year during the lockdown and used to meet frequently, police said.
He was upset that she had refused to marry him and even share his phone number. He allegedly decided to poison her and the teenager caught with him helped in the plan.
According to police, the two went out into the field on Wednesday with two bottles of water laced with pesticide and some snacks. The three girls were working in the fields. The man offered the sandwiches to the girl he had befriended and she asked him for water. Police said they gave him the bottle with the poisoned water. His younger cousins also drank from the other bottle. They all fell unconscious.
Thursday’s autopsy could not establish the cause of the deaths. “The autopsy was carried out by a panel of doctors and no injuries were found before death or external injuries on their bodies,” said Uttar Pradesh Police Chief Hitesh Chandra Awasthy.
Their viscera were preserved for further investigation.
The discovery of the bodies had caused outrage and protests, with the opposition targeting Yogi Adityanath’s state government for failing to provide safety for women and girls. Congressional Leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi with #UnnaoKiBeti, saying: “It’s not just about Dalits, but under UP rule women’s dignity and human rights have also been trampled on.”
Akhilesh Yadav from the SP tweeted saying: “First it was ‘the daughter of Hathras’, then ‘the mother of Badayun’ and now ‘the sisters of Unnao'”.
The girls’ family filed a murder case yesterday.
Six police teams were formed to investigate the case. A witness who claimed to have seen two men flee the field provided a clue, police said.
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