2 teenage girls found hanging from tree in Shahjahanpur village, cops search for their phones

The bodies of two teenage girls, aged 17 and 15, were found hanging from a tree in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district on Monday morning.Police said the deceased belonged to the same community and lived in houses roughly 200 metres apart in the same neighbourhood. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Shahjahanpur circle officer (Sadar) Shubham Verma said the two girls were close friends and police were gathering information to ascertain the circumstances around their deaths. The bodies have been sent for postmortem examination, he said.The incident came to light around 8 am in Haraiya village, under the jurisdiction of the Nigohi police station, when villagers spotted the two close friends hanging from separate dupattas tied to the same branch.The deceased belonged to the same community and lived in houses roughly 200 metres apart in the same neighbourhood.Police said they were trying to trace the two teenagers’ mobile phones. Police would also examine their call records and other available digital evidence during the investigation.Police said the cause and circumstances of the deaths would be clearer after the postmortem reports and further investigation. Their families have not levelled any allegations so far.