Teenage couple killed, bodies hung from tree in UP

UTTAR PRADESH: A teenage couple was allegedly killed by the girls' relatives and the bodies hung from a tree in a village here to make it look like suicide, police said on Thursday.

Police booked seven people, including the girl's father, for kidnapping, murder and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Four of them have been arrested.

The bodies were found hanging from a mango tree in Kayampur Nivarwara village under the Asiwan police station area on Tuesday. Police said the the girl was 17 years old and belonged to the Thakur community, while the man, aged 19, was a Dalit.

Station in-charge Akhilesh Tiwari said that a day before the bodies were found, the girl's father had lodged a complaint against the young man for abducting her.

On Tuesday, the man's father lodged a complaint against the girl's family for abducting his son, killing him and hanging the body, Tiwari said.

Circle Officer Bangarmau Pankaj Singh, who is investigating the case, said in the course of interrogation of those arrested, it has come to the fore that the young man had been going around the village saying he would marry the girl and take her home as soon as she became an adult.

It has also come out in the inquiry that the girl's relatives killed the young man first and then brought the girl and hanged them both to make it look like a case of suicide, the CO said.

Investigations are on and all the accused will be arrested soon, the officer said.

Police said the couple had once eloped in March but was found within a week. Based on a complaint from the girl's relatives, an FIR was registered. The man was sent to jail while the girl was handed over to her family after a medical examination and recording of her statement.

According to local people, the girl belonged to an upper caste and her family was opposed to her relationship with a Dalit man, and this led to the killing of the two.

There is, however, no mention of this in the police report given by the family of the deceased youth.