The CBI’s conclusion that the twin deaths in Badaun this May were suicides and not a “gangrape and murder” case as first deduced by the UP police and reported by the media raises disturbing questions. The case has virtually turned on its head and it appears that succumbing to intense media pressure, the UP police and its forensic teams pursued only one line of investigation. Five men, three of them brothers, and two police constables, all of them Yadavs, who were accused by the girl’s family, stand exonerated now. The CBI has also alleged that the girl’s family tampered with evidence and gave false testimony that implicated the five men. According to the agency, one of the girls was allegedly discovered in an intimate position with one of the accused brothers, Pappu, by their relative, Nazru, while the other girl stood guard following which the girls panicked, hid for several hours at night in a nearby area as their family launched a desperate search, and then took their lives at 2am.

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Irrespective of the veracity of these findings, this is a time for media practitioners to examine their own guidelines in reporting crimes and for the UP police to revisit their investigation practices. The Badaun deaths happened when the UP government was on the backfoot following a rash of incidents of communal and gender violence. The BJP had swept the Lok Sabha elections in UP and perceptions of the Akhilesh Yadav government’s misgovernance had peaked. The media was quick to slot the Badaun deaths in this context of gender violence, police inaction, and law-and-order failure. It was also wrongly reported that the victims hailed from the Dalit community. All this landed the local police under intense scrutiny and they moved quickly to arrest the brothers and suspend the two policemen for dereliction of duty. Attempts to pursue other lines of inquiry — like the victims being known to the accused and honour killing floundered in the confusion that ensued. Even before the UP police could analyse mobile call detail records, a valuable investigation aid in recent years, its probe was discredited and the CBI had to intervene, as in the Aarushi case, to probe all possible angles. Consider also the recent Meerut “gangrape” case, which also turned, with the first media reports suggesting “love jihad” ultimately proving to be wrong and hasty. The alleged victim’s family was found to have concocted the story to mask her relationship with the accused, a Muslim neighbour.

Rewind further. Even in the Aarushi murder case, where a veritable “media trial” ensued, such intrusive reportage, raising insinuations and quoting anonymous sources in the guise of ensuring justice, was clearly counterproductive. The onus on the media to frame guidelines ensuring restraint in reporting crimes that do not malign individual reputations or adversely influence the course of investigations is non-negotiable. However, the UP police must note the CBI’s disapproval of its failure to preserve evidence, as occurred in the Aarushi case. The CBI has questioned the autopsy conducted by UP doctors which concluded there was sexual assault. Also, a second, and possibly conclusive, autopsy on the bodies by the CBI was a non-starter when the burial site was flooded and their bodies could not be located afterwards. Finally, in the allegations that the Badaun police failed to lodge an FIR on receipt of the complaint, lies the genesis of this affair. Unless police act professionally, register FIRs and compulsorily videotape statements of accused and witnesses, truth becomes the casualty in such cases. Such professionalism also applies to 24x7 media, which demands quick results, and accountability, from others.