Two teenage inmates of a government-run girls' shelter home in Vrindavan allegedly drowned their 14-year-old fellow inmate by holding her head inside a bucket of water, police said on Sunday.
The incident took place on Friday at the shelter home in Chaitanya Vihar, they said.
The girl's death was initially believed to be natural, but a post-mortem examination conducted on Saturday indicated drowning as the cause of death, prompting authorities to examine CCTV footage, police said.
According to the footage, three girls staying in Room No. 5 went to the bathroom to bathe around 11 am on Friday. About 40 minutes later, two of them returned while the third remained inside.
Her absence was noticed around 5 pm during the routine headcount, following which she was found dead in the bathroom.
Police said the CCTV footage showed the two accused girls allegedly holding the victim's head inside a bucket of water until she stopped breathing.
During questioning, the two initially attempted to mislead investigators but confessed after being confronted with the CCTV footage, police said.
The accused, aged 14 and 15, were residents of Aligarh and Pilibhit and had been sent to the shelter home after being recovered following alleged elopement with male friends.
The victim, a 14-year-old from Bareilly, had been sent to the shelter home after her father died shortly after her birth and her mother, who was mentally ill, later also died.
Police said the two accused told investigators that they did not want to remain at the shelter home and wanted to create a situation that would lead to its closure and the girls being sent back home.
A third girl who entered the same bathroom around 3 pm on Friday reportedly saw the body but returned without informing anyone, police said.
On the complaint of the shelter home in-charge Pragati Khare, an FIR has been registered at Sadar police station.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Varun Mishra said five girls have been booked for murder, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy, and damaging property.
Three girls have been named in the FIR, while two others have been accused of assisting in the alleged conspiracy, he said.
District Magistrate Chandraprakash Singh and Senior Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar inspected the shelter home after the post-mortem findings came to light.
The district magistrate has also ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and written to the district judge requesting the probe.
Shelter home authorities said the victim was good at studies and had been allowed to continue her education at her request.
The girl's last rites were performed on Saturday evening, police said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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