Rising Ganga may foil CBI plan to exhume Badaun girls' bodies

Badaun: The Irrigation department has warned that CBI's plan to conduct fresh autopsy on the bodies of two teenage girls raped and murdered in Badaun is going to be dead in the water if the agency failed to exhume the bodies within the next two days.

"Due to heavy rains in Uttrakhand, water level in the Ganga is rising and in next two days the graves could be submerged...," Executive Engineer of Uttar Pradesh Irrigation department's Flood Division D K Jain said here.

"The District Magistrate had asked us to protect the graves on the Ganga river bank from floods. We have given him our report after inspecting the spot," Jain said.

He said if the bodies were not exhumed in the next two days, it would become difficult due to the rising water levels.

The two cousins, aged 14 and 15, went missing from their house on the night of May 27 and their bodies were found hanging from a tree in the village in Ushait area the next day.

Later, CBI was handed over the case after it sparked a nationwide outrage.

The central agency is likely to conduct fresh autopsy on the bodies as it feels that proper procedure was not followed while conducting the post-mortem earlier.