2 men sentenced to life for gangrape-murder of Dalit sisters in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri

“The court sentenced Junaid and Chhotu to rigorous life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 46,000 each. The court awarded six years of imprisonment to the other two accused —Karimuddin and Arif — and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on them,” said Special Public Prosecutor Brijesh Kumar Pandey. The court examined 15 prosecution and two defence witnesses.

Junaid and Chhotu were found guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder), 376-DA (punishment for gangrape on woman under sixteen years of age), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 363 (kidnapping), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Karimuddin and Arif were found guilty under IPC Section 201, said Pandey.

Defence counsel Suresh Singh Chauhan said an appeal would be filed against the judgment in a higher court.

Pandey said the trial of two other accused, who were declared minors (aged 15 and 17), is still pending.

According to the prosecution, on September 14 last year, local residents spotted the bodies of two minor sisters, aged 17 and 15, found hanging from a tree in Lakhimpur Kheri district. Family members of the girls said they were “abducted” from outside the house three hours before their bodies were spotted. The police found the accused had raped and strangled them before hanging their bodies from a tree to make it appear like a suicide.

Chhotu was the first person to be arrested by the police. Based on the information he shared, the police arrested the other five other accused. Pandey said that during the trial, it came to light that assailants killed girls who raised an alarm and threatened to expose them.