Mumbai:
The Opposition in Maharashtra has demanded that the state government should clarify on the embarrassing error in the Bhandara deaths case. A forensic expert has contradicted a post-mortem report to say that three minor sisters died of drowning in a well and were not raped, killed and then thrown into it in Bhandara in Maharashtra last month.
"The first report said the girls were raped. The second report says they were not and they drowned in the well and died. We want to ask the government which report is right? Or is the second report a ploy by the government to suppress something? There is a suspicion and are going to raise the issue in the assembly," said Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse at the customary press conference ahead of the Budget session of the Maharashtra Assembly.
On February 14, three sisters - aged 11, nine, and six - had gone missing from Lakhani village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra. The post-mortem report had suggested the girls were sexually assaulted before being murdered. A report by forensic experts, however, negated the post-mortem report that said the girls were sexually abused , killed and subsequently were thrown into the well.
An expert from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), in his report, had opined that the girls bore no external injuries on their bodies. The clothes, earrings and nose rings of the three sisters were intact. The report also states that the girls died due to drowning and that there were no signs of smothering, poisoning, throttling or them being strangled.
Nearly a month has passed since the girls' bodies were found in a well off the Nagpur-Raipur Highway. With no arrests in the case so far and a botched-up investigation, the state government is bound to face the heat over the issue once the Assembly session is underway.