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 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.
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”.
The Indian Express reported that the laboratory analysed “items of clothing” and personal effects worn by the two victims as well as the clothes worn by the accused. It also said that blood samples and swabs from both the victims and the accused were examined.
The girls, who were from a lower caste, were found hanged from a tree in Badaun district on 28 May. Three suspected attackers were detained, along with two policemen accused of dereliction of duty and criminal conspiracy.
The victims’ families alleged it took police more than 12 hours to respond to reports they were missing.
The girls, thought to have been 14 and 15, went missing when they had apparently gone out to relieve themselves as they had no toilet at home. Their bodies were discovered the following day.
Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus, which eventually led to the government tightening laws on sexual violence.
This case also sparked a debate about the dangers for rural women who have to travel to nearby fields in order to use the toilet.
Source: BBC