Tragedy tourism as Badaun mourns

The search for two additional suspects continued for the fourth day on Sunday, police said, adding identity sketches of the two missing suspects based on descriptions provided by the arrested suspects were being prepared. The three suspects, identified as Pappu Yadav, Awdesh Yadav, Urvesh Yadav, detained so far in the attack, are cousins in their twenties and come from an extended family. Authorities also have arrested two police officers and suspended another two for failing to investigate when the father of one of the teenagers reported the girls missing. The CBI is expected to take over investigation into the crime this week, Saxena said.

Turning the heat over the issue on the incumbent Samajwadi Party (SP) government, the BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday demanded the imposition of President’s rule in UP, citing rise of crime and lawlessness in the state.

A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met the family members of the girls, Mayawati reached Katra, alleging the SP government was perpetrating a ‘jungle raj’ and there were attempts to put the case on the back-burner. Local SP parliamentarian Dharmendra Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew, also visited Katra on Sunday. He faced the anger of the inconsolable parents, who have alleged that the police did not take prompt action in the case because of their caste. Joining the group of politicians visiting Badaun, union minister Ram Vilas Paswan is expected to turn up on Monday.

The father of one of the slain girls said that they could have been saved had the police had acted on time. He alleged the girls were abducted when they had gone out to relieve themselves. He further said the kidnappers admitted that the girls were in their custody but refused to release them. The family alleges when they sought police help, they refused to register a FIR for hours and instead demanded to know about their caste.