Teenage girl found dead in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri; 4th incident in a month

A 14-year-old girl was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday (September 6), police said.

They said the body was found hanging from the thatched roof of a house with a scarf.

This is the fourth such incident reported over four weeks.

Lakhimpur Kheri SP Satendra Kumar Singh, Additional SP Arun Kumar Singh and Mitauli Circle Officer Shitanshu Kumar rushed to the spot after receiving information about the incident and carried out initial investigations. The officials talked to the parents and other family members of the girl, police said.

The reason behind the girl’s death is yet to be ascertained. Police said the body has been sent for an autopsy and appropriate action would be taken after the report comes.

This is the second death of a girl under Neemgaon police limits since August 25.

Lakhimpur Kheri district was in the news recently when a 17-year-old Dalit girl was found dead outside her village. She was allegedly raped and murdered after she left home to fill a scholarship application. Her mutilated body was found near a dry pond, around 200 metres away from her village falling under the Neemgaon police limits.

Prior to this incident, a 13-year-old girl was raped and killed in the district. Police said the girl had gone to the fields in the afternoon and when she did not return home, her family started looking for her. She was found dead in a sugarcane field.

This was the third such incident in the district in three weeks.

The accused was nabbed in an encounter on Friday, according to police. Four teams were formed to capture the accused, after the girl’s father, in his complaint to the police, alleged that Lekhram, a resident of their village, had abducted and killed the child due to an old enmity with his family.

A case of murder was lodged against the accused.

The girl’s body, which bore injury marks on the head, was recovered from the vicinity of her village in Singahi area on Thursday (September 3) after she went missing on Wednesday (September 2), police said.

The three-year-old girl had gone missing on Wednesday, and was found dead on Thursday with signs of head injury.

“The postmortem report has confirmed rape. I am with family members right now. Seven of our teams are working on the case. I am myself going for combing in sugarcane fields and strict action will be taken against the accused,” Superintendent of Police, Satyendra Kumar Singh said.

“If needed, the NSA will also be invoked against the accused,” he added.

These incidents drew flak from the opposition, with Congress and SP leaders attacking the Yogi Adityanath-led state government over the law and order situation, which is steadily worsening.

Multiple reports of rape and murder have come in over the last few weeks from Uttar Pradesh.

Taking to Twitter, state Congress Chief Ajay Kumar Lalu said, “Even after so many incidents, our ‘tough’ Chief Minister has not fixed responsibility. A dying system and a helpless Chief Minister.”

Following the spike in crimes against women, particularly minors, the UP government set up a Women and Child Safety Organization recently, headed by a senior police officer to handle such cases and ensure the safety of women and children.