Following the rape and murder of two minor Dalit girls, aged 17 and 15 years, in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, whose bodies were found hanging from a tree in their village, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a notice to authorities in the State and the district, seeking an Action Taken Report (ATR) as soon as possible.
The Commission on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of media reports on the deaths, and sent the notice to the Chief Secretary of the U.P. government, the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, the District Magistrate of Lakhimpur Kheri, and the local police.
NCSC head Vijay Sampla took to Twitter and called the incident “very unfortunate”, directing authorities in the State to submit their report to the Commission “immediately”.
In the notice issued to authorities in U.P., the NCSC said it had decided to independently investigate the incident, with officials in the know saying that a team was likely to visit the spot to begin its probe in the coming days.
Hours after the bodies of the girls were discovered, the police on Thursday morning said that six men had been arrested for the crime and the First Information Report (FIR) included charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
