Hanged India girls' 'rape' in doubt

A forensic investigation into clothing and swabs taken after the murder and alleged gang rape of two teenage cousins in northern India has concluded they were not sexually assaulted, the BBC reported.  

The girls were found hanged from a tree in Uttar Pradesh state in May, in a case which sparked global outrage.

Three suspected attackers were taken into custody along with two policemen.

At the time a local post-mortem examination confirmed multiple sexual assaults and death due to hanging.

The case was initially investigated by the state police, but later handed over to federal investigators at India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Correspondents say it is not clear how the CBI will be able to resolve the apparent contradictions between the latest forensic conclusions and the earlier post-mortem performed by the local authorities.

The father of one of the victims said he was shocked by the latest report.

"I don't know whether the samples sent to the labs were of my daughter or of someone else. Ever since the post-mortem was conducted every effort has been made to conceal the facts... Justice is being denied to us," he said.

Last month, the CBI attempted to exhume the bodies of the girls but their graves were under floodwaters and remain inaccessible to this day.

But India's Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) was able to examine the clothes and personal effects of the two girls and reported that it found no proof of sexual assault, a CBI spokesperson told BBC Hindi.

The CBI refused to provide any more details, but media reports quoting sources in the CDFD said "no male DNA had been found on the clothes and personal effects" of the girls and also "no female DNA was found on the samples taken from the male suspects."