The accused harassed the girls to speak with them, police said (Representational)
Two men have been booked in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad on the charge of abetment of suicide after two Dalit girls, aged 15 and 18, hanged themselves, police said on Friday.
Their bodies were found hanging in an orchard on Tuesday, they said.
The men were booked under section 108 (abetment of suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on Thursday following a complaint from the girls' family members, Superintendent of Police (SP) Alok Priyadarshi said.
"The accused have been arrested and are being questioned," he said.
In the police complaint, the family members alleged that the two men used to harass the girls, who were neighbours and close friends.
"The accused also lived in the same village and harassed the girls to speak with them. One of the accused had also given a SIM card to one of the girls. The same SIM card was found in a phone recovered near the bodies," the SP said.
Further investigations into the matter are underway, he added.
Police said the girls left their homes around 10 pm on August 26 to visit a nearby temple on the occasion of Janmashtami but did not return.
After their bodies were found, a panel of doctors was formed to conduct the post-mortem examination.
"Police investigation findings correlate with the post-mortem report that the girls committed suicide. No injury marks have been found on the bodies," Mr Priyadarshi said on Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)