Police in the Uttar Pradesh state of India will exhume the bodies of two teenage girls who were raped and murdered by a group of men in their hometown in order to perform a "fresh autopsy," according reports in the Indian media.

The BBC reports that the 14-year-old and 16-year-old cousins will have their bodies exhumed despite reported confessions from three suspects. The girls were discovered hanging from a tree in Katra in the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh the morning of May 28.

The case has been turned over to the CBI (India's Central Bureau of Investigation) from state police.

The case has created wide ripples in India, stirring protests from people who say police should have begun investigations sooner.

From the BBC:

The victims' families say it took police more than 12 hours to respond to reports they were missing because they are from a lower caste.

Divisions between India's castes run deep, and violence is often used by upper castes to instill fear in lower castes, correspondents say.

Although both the victim and the accused in the latest case belonged to a group known as "Other Backward Classes", the victims were lower in that hierarchy.

[Image via AP]