Two India girls gang raped and hanged in Uttar Pradesh

Two teenage girls, a 14 year old and her 15 year old cousin were gang-raped by five Indian men and then hanged them from a tree in a village in the northern stateo f Uttar Pradesh, police said today.

According to Reuters, the two girls who were from a low-caste Dalit community went missing from their village home when they went out to go to the toilet on Tuesday evening, May 27th. The following morning, villagers found the bodies of the two teenagers hanging from a mango tree in a nearby orchard. 

Indian police have arrested one man and are looking for four other suspects. The police said a post-mortem confirmed the two minors were raped and died from the hanging. DNA samples have also been taken to help identity the perpetrators, the police told reporters.


The victim's families allege that local police were shielding the attackers as they refused to take action when the girls were first reported missing.


It was only after angry villagers found the hanging corpses and took the bodies to a nearby highway and blocked it in protest, that police registered a case of rape and murder.