Bhandara rape case: Girls not raped, say sources

The police investigation into the rape and murder of three minor sisters at Murmadi village in Bhandara district of Maharashtra has not made a headway even after a fortnight.

The post-mortem report had said the girls, aged six, nine and eleven years, were raped and murdered. However, sources close to the investigation claim that they were not raped.

A recent forensic analysis report also showed that the girls were neither strangulated nor poisoned but failed to pinpoint the cause of the deaths.

Bhandara SP Dr Arti Singh could not be contacted for confirmation of these reports.

Yesterday, a team of National Commission for Women had visited the victims' family members at the village.

The team observed that despite the outrage over the incident in the village, no witnesses was coming forward. The team also expressed displeasure about the investigation and called it "insensitive".

Smita Singhalkar, a member of the team, said today that it was unfortunate that there were no witnesses as the crime site was only two km off a national highway.

The three sisters, who were studying in a local school, had gone missing on February 14 and their bodies were recovered from a well in the village on February 16.

Political leaders are making a beeline to meet the victims' family. Home Minister R R Patil and Union Minister Praful Patel had earlier visited the village. Shiv Sena youth wing president Aditya Thackeray, and Sena leaders Vinayak Raut, Deepak Sawant, Neelam Gorhe and Ashish Jaiswal visitedthe family last evening.

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