E-Paper
Assam CM says deaths of 2 minor sisters ‘mysterious’, calls for thorough probe
The two girls, aged 16 and 14, were found dead inside a small forest in Assam’s Kokrajhar district, some distance away from their home, on Friday evening a few hours after they went missing.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday called for a thorough probe into the deaths of two minor sisters, who were found hanging from a tree in Kokrajhar district of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) on Friday.
“Family members of the victims say that there was no reason for them to die by suicide. The entire incident appears mysterious,” said Sarma, while visiting the victims’ family, which has alleged that the sisters were raped and murdered.
The two girls, aged 16 and 14, were found dead inside a small forest, some distance away from their home, on Friday evening a few hours after they went missing.
“If it’s [a] murder, [then] the accused should be arrested and handed an appropriate punishment. And if it’s a case of [death by] suicide, the probe should be on what led to it. I have directed the police to probe both these angles,” he added.
Bodies of the two victims were sent to Kokrajhar civil hospital on Saturday for post-mortem. The reports were awaited.
Sarma said police have already detained five persons for questioning. “Two of them were found to have deleted all messages from their mobiles phones, but there’s evidence of them making calls, lasting over an hour, to the victims,” he said.
Sarma added that crimes against women in districts of lower Assam had led to a sense of insecurity, however, his government wouldn’t tolerate such incidents, especially those targeting the poor and the oppressed sections.
