Badaun case: All five accused clear lie-detector test, focus shifts to girls’ family

NEW DELHI: In a big twist in the case of the minor girls killed in Badaun, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) has told the CBI after a series of scientific tests that all the five accused behind bars are not lying while claiming that they did not commit the crime.

The accused, who were arrested by the UP police on the complaint of the girls’ family, have cleared the lie-detector test, a senior CBI official said. CBI director Ranjit Sinha told ET that the agency had not reached any conclusion yet. “But the reality of the case seems to be very different. The allegations in the FIR lodged by the UP Police do not seem to be correct,” Sinha said.

The accused — Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav (brothers) and constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav — were subjected to a lie-detector test. All five maintained they had neither raped nor murdered the minor girls, a claim that was found to be “truthful” during the tests, CFSL has told CBI.

This shifts the spotlight back to the girls’ parents and family members who have also been subjected to scientific tests, reports of which are awaited. The parents earlier destroyed the cellphone of one of the killed girls and also hid her slippers, which have been recovered by CBI.

A probe official said it was “incomprehensible” why a rapist-cummurderer would take the pains or chance of hanging the girls from a tree in an open field after the crime. The call records show the elder of the killed girls was in regular touch with Pappu and they had exchanged over 400 calls in the couple of months before her murder, indicating they were having an affair.

CBI is turning its lens on the girls’ uncle Babu Ram who claims to be a witness. UP DGP AL Bannerjee had earlier said this could be a case of “honour killing”, that rape of one of the girls was “not confirmed”.