13-year-old girl gang-raped, strangled to death in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri; 2 held

A 13-year-old girl was allegedly strangled to death after being gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district.

The family members of the minor alleged that her eyes were gouged out and tongue was chopped, but the police denied the allegation and said that the postmortem report confirmed gang-rape and strangulation but no injury marks were found elsewhere on the body.

According to the police sources, the girl, a resident of Isanagar area in the district, had gone to the fields to answer the call of nature on Friday evening, when she was forcibly taken to a secluded place, where two persons allegedly gang-raped her before strangulating the victim.

The family members, who launched a search for the minor after she did not return home, found her body in the fields late in the night.

Police said that the girl was dragged into the fields by the culprits. They had stuffed a piece of cloth in her mouth to muffle her screams.

Police have arrested two persons in this connection, sources said, adding that the duo is being interrogated. National Security Act (NSA) would be slapped on them, they added.

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav launched a scathing attack on the BJP government in the state saying that it had failed miserably on the law and order situation. ''No one is safe under this regime,'' Akhilesh said.