Badaun (UP): Three men arrested in May after two teenage girls were found hanging from a tree in a village in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, have been granted bail by a local court on Thursday after the Central Bureau of Investigation did not press the charges against them. The three men had reportedly cleared the lie detector and other forensic tests in the case.
The two policemen arrested in the case were given bail two days ago.
CBI sources have emphasised that the agency’s decision not to file a chargesheet at this stage does not mean it is giving a clean chit to anyone in the case.
The five were accused of rape and murder and were arrested soon after the girls – cousins aged 14 and 15 – were found hanging, leading to a national outrage. They have been in custody for 90 days, the maximum time that a person can be held in custody without being charged.
The post-mortem report of the girls said they had not been raped. The agency is investigating an allegation by the local police that the girls’ murder was a case of honour killing.