Sitapur Incident: Surviving girl changes statement second time, says father pushed them off train

An officer with the Jagdishpur police station in Bihar, had earlier said that Afreen claimed they had boarded the Kamakhya-Katra Express and not the Janseva Express as was claimed by the UP Police earlier. (Representational Image)

The woman who was presumed to have died after being pushed off a moving train along with four of her daughters in Sitapur district last week, recorded her statement before the magistrate on Wednesday, a day after she reached her native village in Bihar. One of her three surviving daughters, Anbul (7), on whose testimony the police have relied so far, recorded her statement as well. While the woman, Afreen, stuck to her claim that her husband Iddu Ansari had thrown them off the train, Anbul too held her father accountable for the crime, changing her statement for the second time.

Anbul, who had survived the October 24 incident but sustained injuries, had initially told police that her father was behind it. A day later however, she had accused her maternal uncle Iqbal and his friend Izhaar of throwing her and sisters off the train. Iqbal and Izhaar were then booked on charges of murder and attempt to murder on the basis of her statement. They were, however, given a clean chit after Afreen named Ansari as the accused. "After the statement of the mother and daughter, Iqbal and Izhaar have been given a clean chit and Iddu Ansari, father of the girls, has been named as the accused," said SP GRP, Lucknow, Saumitra Yadav.

Afreen was presumed to be dead after the body of a woman was recovered from the tracks, a day after the sisters - one of whom, Munni (6), had died - were found. On Monday, Afreen turned up in her native village Jhakra in Bihar's West Champaran district with her youngest daughter Haseena (2), claiming that her husband tried to get rid of the girls as he could not arrange for money for their marriage.

The SP said that two of the injured girls - Anbul and Saleeba (4) - are still undergoing treatment at the Sitapur district hospital and Afreen was there with them. The eldest daughter, Rabiya (11), is still unconscious and admitted at the KGMU trauma centre in Lucknow, he added. Only Anbul was able to speak among the injured victims, he said.

An officer with the Jagdishpur police station in Bihar, had earlier said that Afreen claimed they had boarded the Kamakhya-Katra Express and not the Janseva Express as was claimed by the UP Police earlier. "While arguing with her near a crowded gate of a general compartment, he allegedly threw their four daughters off the train...," he had said. Meanwhile, the police team camping in Katra area of Jammu is yet to trace Ansari. "His mobile phone location keeps changing and cops are trying to locate him," said another GRP official.