CBI not to charge five accused in Budaun case

CBI will not be filing a charge sheet against the five accused in the Badaun rape-cum-murder case "at this stage" as forensic evidence available with the agency has ruled out sexual assault on the two teenage cousins.

"CBI is not filing charge sheet against the five accused persons, who are in custody, at this stage. However, we have not given clean chit to anyone and further investigation is under way," CBI spokesperson Kanchan Prasad said today. Prasad said the agency is now focussing on who could have committed the crime.

The CBI had taken into custody five accused-- Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav (brothers) and constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav for alleged rape and murder of two teenage girls. These accused were put through lie-detection test and they cleared it.

The move of CBI not to file a charge sheet will enable Papu Yadav to claim bail from the local court as his 90 days of custody is coming to an end tomorrow while for the rest of arrested accused this period will be over on Thursday.

If the agency is unable to file a charge sheet against an accused of such crime within 90 days of their arrest, they become eligible for bail.

The decision of the agency is based on the report from the medical board which has come to a conclusion that sexual assault on both the girls "looked unlikely."

The board had come to this preliminary finding on the basis of analysis of DNA report from Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) and its own examination of victims' belongings and interview of doctors who carried out initial post-mortem.

CBI souces said the post-mortem conducted by local doctor had discrepancies and the board has again sought to interview the doctor who carried out autopsy to know how the conclusion of sexual assault was reached by them.

The two cousin sisters--aged 14 and 15--were found hanging from a tree in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh in the last week of May, an incident which sparked national outrage with the Samajwadi Party government in the state coming under fire on the issue of law and order situation.

The sources said that with sexual assault being ruled out, the accused clearing the lie-detection test and inconsistencies in the statements of eye-witnesses, the suspicion is now on the family members.

There were also conflicting statements by the parents of the two cousins, the sources said.

The sources said they are not ruling out honour killing angle in the matter but have not come to any conclusion so far.

The case is heavily dependent on the scientific and forensic evidence after independent medical board could not exhume the bodies of the victims for fresh autopsy following heavy rains which resulted in flooding of their graves.

The findings of CBI are in sync with the observations of UP DGP A L Banerjee who had claimed that the rape of one of the victims was not confirmed and that property could be one of the motives behind the crime.

The sources said the CDFD report had cleared lot of doubts raised over the cousins being sexually assaulted before being killed.