Kin of 1 of 2 teens found hanging in Farrukhabad files abetment to suicide case

In his complaint, the father of one of the Dalit teenagers named the accused and said they used to harass the teenagers

The father of one of the Dalit teenagers found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad has filed a case accusing two youths of harassing and pushing his daughter and her friend to suicide. In his complaint, the father named the accused and said they used to harass the teenagers and that the harassment led to their deaths.

The village in Farrukhabad where the bodies were found. (ANI)

The First Information Report (FIR) filed in the case, a copy which HT has seen, said a SIM card found in the possession of one of the girls belonged to one of the named accused. The complainant said the youths would speak to the teenagers for hours on the phone and harass them.

The accused have been booked under Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita’s Section 108 (abetment of suicide) even as no arrests have been made yet. Police teams were looking for the accused.

The FIR said the two girls were found hanging from a mango tree in an orchard on August 27 after they went missing following Janmashtami celebrations at a local temple. It was filed days after the families of teenagers, aged 15 and 18, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into murder, rejecting the police’s claim that the teenagers died by suicide.

The families of the teenagers refused to perform the last rites for hours and rejected the post-mortem report, raising questions about the police investigation and the medical examination.

The father of the 15-year-old this week said the teenagers were happy and had no reason to take an extreme step. The bodies were cremated after officials persuaded the families to proceed with the cremation promising a transparent investigation. Police found a mobile phone and SIM card hidden in the 15-year-old girl’s inner-wear.

The case sparked a political controversy with Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav calling the silence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government disturbing. “Perhaps there are two reasons for this, one is the BJP’s anti-women thinking and attitude and the other is them being Dalits.”

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the police and administration for the hurried cremation of the bodies. She said the administration’s handling of this case raised questions, citing similar patterns of neglect and cruelty in other cases. “The repeated occurrence of such incidents prompts a broader question: Should Dalits, marginalised communities, the poor, and women resign themselves to lack of justice and remain hopeless?”