Around 5 pm on Thursday, a 45-year-old woman noticed smoke emanating from the house adjoining hers. Suspecting a short-circuit, she reached the courtyard and saw thick smoke coming from a room to the left. “The main gate was bolted from outside. The TV in the room was switched on. I heard voices which I thought belonged to my nieces. I didn’t realise then that they were coming from the TV,” she says. The bodies of her nieces — aged 23 and 22 — were found at the residence at a village in Bulandshahr’s B B Nagar area that evening. They were found in two rooms on opposite sides of the house, both bodies lying on beds and partially burnt. The body of the 23-year-old had a cable, suspected to be wire used in motorcycles, around her neck. She was lying face down in the middle of two single beds joined together, headphones in her ears. On Friday, the walls and fan were still laden with soot. A yellow clock was lying on the floor, its plastic edges melted, possibly from the fire and smoke. “The door of this room was ajar and smoke was emanating from here. There was so much smoke that we couldn’t see anything. We used water from the pump outside and switched on the fans. It is only when the smoke cleared that we saw one body,” the aunt says, pointing to the black patch of burnt coir and mattress cover on the bed. Judging by the height of the body, the aunt and other family members realised that it wasn’t the 22-year-old resident of the house but the 23-year-old cousin from Hapur district who had been staying there for the last four days. As the hunt for the second woman started, smoke was noticed in another room. “We opened the door and saw her body on the single bed. Her body was also burnt,” the aunt says. The 23-year old woman was doing her MA in political science at a private university, while the 22-year-old was a graduate who was teaching at a private school. She stayed in the house with her parents and brother. The cousins were alone at home from around 9 am to 5 pm, police and family say. “An FIR under IPC sections relating to murder and disappearance of evidence, giving false information has been lodged against unknown persons on the family’s complaint. Post mortem examination states asphyxia due to strangulation as the cause of deaths. Some people are being questioned, we are investigating all possible angles,” said Bulandshahr SSP G Muniraj. A senior police officer said, “It does not seem like there was a forced entry into the house. No neighbour claims to have heard screams. A small burnt cold drink bottle with kerosene was recovered along with a mobile phone of one of the victims. Call detail records and phone locations are being investigated. We are checking if there is an involvement of a family member or a possible love affair.” According to the 22-year-old’s mother, the two women were alone at home since 9.30 am on Thursday. “My son, my husband and I had gone to Delhi to distribute invitation cards for my son’s wedding on February 18. I spoke to my daughter at 3 pm and everything was fine. When I called her later, no one picked up, and then the phone was switched off. I got a call around 2 hours later that their bodies had been found,” she says. Adityanath seeks report Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sought a report on the incident and directed officials to take strict action against those responsible, PTI reported.
