Two schoolgirls were found hanging from the ends of the same rope on a tree in Assam
Two schoolgirls who were found hanging from the ends of the same rope on a tree in Assam's Karimganj district committed suicide, the postmortem report said today, adding the two were not raped.
The girls, both Class 10 dropouts, had been missing since Wednesday evening. Their bodies were found on Thursday morning by relatives, following which the police was informed. The tree where the two were found hanging is barely 200 metres from the house of one of them, located barely two kilometres from the border with Bangladesh. Locals suspect that the girls were first raped and then killed.
"Death was due to asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem suicidal hanging," the report of the postmortem, conducted at the Silchar Medical College, said. It also pointed out that there was "no finding suggesting recent sexual intercourse".
Police, though, say they will investigate what led the girls to take the drastic step.
Sources in the police say mobile phones belonging to the girls were active till at least three hours after they disappeared - multiple calls were reportedly made to a few numbers from the phones. The call records are currently being examined.
In May, two teenage girls who were cousins were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district. Although their families alleged the girls had been gang-raped and then hanged alive, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the case, says evidence recovered does not prove sexual assault.
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