A trader’s two daughters were found hanging at their maternal grandfather’s house at Gotha village near here on Sunday morning.

The bodies of Paroma Das, 19, and Aparna Das, 17, were hanging from dupattas tied to a ceiling fan and an iron beam, respectively.

Paroma was a first-year BA student at Aurangabad D.N. College, while Aparna studied in humanities section of Class XI at Gotha High School.

The sisters were found hanging in the room around 8am on Sunday by family members at their grandfather’s house.

The siblings’ father, Sarbeswar Das, runs a shop of bakery products. The sisters would spend the day at home and then spend nights at their grandfather’s home, where they shared a room.

Their maternal grandfather, Subal Datta, lives only 200m away from the girls’ home.

According to Datta: “The girls ate dinner with us last night as usual and then went to bed. They seemed absolutely normal. So, we are dumbfounded.”

On Sunday morning, members of the family discovered that the girls’ room was locked from inside. After waiting till 8am, they checked on them from outside through a crack in the windowsill, from where their feet were visible hanging.

The family members broke the door down and informed police. The bodies were sent to Jangipur subdivisional hospital for post-mortem.

A Gotha resident, Ashikur Rahman, said: “Many of us knew that the girls had been romancing the same youth for almost a year and a half now. It could be that they found out the truth last night and were devastated.”

Suti officer-in-charge C. Biswabandhu Chattoraj said: “The family has not filed a complaint yet. We have sent the bodies for post-mortem. We did not find any suicide note but have seized both their cellphones from where we hope to find some clues. We have heard that they were in love with the same youth. Police are investigating the matter.”