Police mull imposing NSA, Gangster Act on accused in Lakhimpur Kheri rape and murder case

Facing criticism from different quarters following the rape and subsequent murder of two Dalit sisters in Lakhimpur Kheri district a few days back, the Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating to impose the National Security Act (NSA) and Gangster Act on the six accused.

According to the sources here, the district police might also use bulldozers to demolish the houses of the accused persons to send the message that the government was committed to deal with such cases with an iron hand.

Police officials in Lakhimpur Kheri said on Saturday that the case would be heard by a fast track court. "We have collected enough evidence against all the accused persons and we want to ensure speedy justice to the family of the victims," said a senior official in the district. All the accused persons, who were arrested Thursday, had been remanded to 14-days of judicial custody by the district court.

Read | 6 held for rape, murder of two Dalit sisters in Uttar Pradesh

Sources said that the postmortem report had conformed rape with the sisters. "There were injury marks on the body of one of the sisters," said the official.

The case had triggered widespread outrage in the country with the opposition leaders accusing the BJP government in the state of failing to ensure safety of the women.

The two sisters, according to the police, were known to two of the accused persons and had 'voluntarily' gone with them on their motorbikes on Wednesday. Their bodies were found hanging from a mango tree outside the village later in the evening.

The victims were taken to a deserted place where they were raped by two accused persons, identified as Junaid and Suhail. The sisters were strangled to death with their 'dupattas' after they (victims) insisted that the duo marry them. The duo, after killing the sisters, called four others, who were their friends, and with their help, hanged the bodies of the victims from a tree to make it look like suicides.

The mother of the victims, however, claimed that the sisters had been 'kidnapped' by some motorbike-borne miscreants from their home on Wednesday. "A few hours later we found them hanging from a tree near the village," she had said.