CBI on Wednesday said that forensic experts have cleared all the five accused in the gangrape and murder case in an Uttar Pradesh village, shifting investigators' focus to the victims' family members, especially on their uncle.
Handing over the forensic report of the lie-detection test, forensic experts said that the accused have appeared truthful in negating the allegations of gangrape and murder of two teenage girls in Badaun village.
"No deviation has been found in the statement of the five accused. The statement of five accused claiming innocence was found to be correct in the polygrahic examination," The Times of India quoted an unnamed source.
However, CBI is yet to receive DNA reports from Hyderabad and other forensic reports from Gandhi Nagar's Forensic Lab.
Although the investigating agency is not concluding the case based on lie-detection test alone, they are still broadening the investigation and moving ahead with other evidences against victims' uncle Babu Ram claiming to be a witness.
The agency has not come out with a conclusion yet, "but the reality of the case seems to be very different. The allegations in the FIR lodged by the UP Police do not seem to be correct," CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told the Economic Times.
CBI is also suspecting the two cousins' parents based on evidences—a destroyed cell phone and hidden slippers—found from the victims' parents. Over 400 calls exchanged between one of the victims and accused Pappu in a couple of months reportedly indicated affairs between the two.
Following this, officials reportedly suspected girls' murder to be an "honour killing" case. UP DGP AL Bannerjee too had shared similar opinion earlier and had said that the rape of one of the girls was not confirmed.
Another investigating officer expressed doubts at the incidents and said it is incomprehensible that after committing the crime, the accused took the chance of hanging the girls from a tree in an open area.
The statements recorded with the UP police and CBI by the victims' parents and family members too are said to have some inconsistencies. For certain evidence against them, CBI is awaiting their forensic test reports.
The teenage girls, aged 14 and 15, were reportedly gangraped and hanged from a tree in Badaun village in the last week of May. Pappu, brothers Awadhesh Yadav and Urvesh Yadav and constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav were arrested for the crime in June.
