KANPUR
A day after a mother and daughter died allegedly due to self-immolation during an anti-encroachment drive in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat district, police on Tuesday booked 42 people, including a sub-divisional magistrate, four revenue officials and over a dozen police officers on murder and other charges, officials said.
Superintendent of police (Kanpur Dehat) BBTGS Murthy said police lodged a first information report (FIR) on charges of murder, attempt to murder against SDM (Maitha) Gyaneshwar Prasad, SHO Dinesh Gautam, kanungo (revenue official of Madauli village) Ashok Dixit, lekhpal (revenue officer) Ashok Singh, JCB driver Vishal and others, including police officers and revenue department officials.
“Lekhpal Ashok Singh and bulldozer driver Deepak have been arrested so far,” Murthy said. SDM Gyaneshwar Prasad has been placed under suspension.
Meanwhile, heavy police deployment has been made in and around the Madauli village in Maitha tehsil as tension prevailed after the deaths. Local residents, including family members of the deceased, did not allow the police to take the charred bodies for a post-mortem examination. However, after deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak spoke to the family over phone, they agreed for the autopsy on Tuesday afternoon, said a senior police officer.
The relatives of the deceased sought the arrest of SDM Prasad and action against district magistrate Neha Jain, who allegedly had ordered the demolition of the encroachment on “gram samaj” land. They also sought ex-gratia of ₹5 crore and a government job to at least two members of the bereaved family.
“The police are investigating the case and stringent action will be taken on the basis of findings,” said Alok Singh, additional director general of police (Kanpur zone).
A senior officer said the FIR has been lodged under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 436 (destruction of house by fire or fire in explosive substance), 429 (killing or maiming animals by mischief), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 34 (several persons acting with common intent in a crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On Monday, the 44-year-old woman and her 21-year-old daughter allegedly set themselves afire in a hut in the presence of police, district administration and revenue officials, who had gone to Madauli village in the Rura area of the district to remove encroachments from a “gram samaj” land, a police officer said.
Several videos of the purported incident have surfaced on social media. In one of the videos, the mother and daughter could be seen rushing into the thatched house and locking the door from inside. Some policemen could be seen trying to break open the door, even as the roof of the house catches fire.
HT cannot independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
The husband of the 44-year-old woman, who suffered burn injuries in a bid to save his wife and daughter, claimed that the gram samaj land was with his family for nearly 100 years. He said he had built a pucca structure there recently without a concrete roof. A villager, Ashok Dixit, complained to the DM that the family of the deceased women had illegally occupied the gram samaj land, which had been leased to the 44-year-old woman.
On Dixit’s complaint, SDM Gyaneshwar Prasad demolished the pucca structure in January this year. The family protested and reached the DM’s office with their cattle, pleading their case. “We were publicly insulted by the DM, ADM and SDM (Maitha). They did not listen to us and we were thrown out of the campus,” said the husband of the 44-year-old woman.
On January 15, tehsildar (Akbarpur) Ranvijay Singh lodged an FIR against the family of deceased for protesting at the DM’s office. This was followed by another FIR of illegally occupying government land.
“(Ashok) Dixit met the DM on Monday with his complaint and she ordered the demolition,” alleged the woman’s husband. “SDM Gyaneshwar reached the village in an hour with a JCB and heavy police contingent. My wife was just trying to stall the demolition but they killed her. No one helped them as they were burning.”
Their son, who registered a complaint on the basis of which the FIR was registered, alleged that the “SDM and lekhpal set the house on fire”. “Had my father and I not rushed, we too would have died. The SDM was screaming – ‘no one should be left alive’,” he alleged.
DM Neha Jain told reporters that the team had reached the village with police personnel to clear encroachment. The women attempted to stop the team and attacked its members. “Thereafter, they resorted to self-immolation in the room. SHO (Rura) suffered burn injuries trying to save them. A committee has been formed to inquire into the incident. Anyone found negligent will not be spared,” she said.
On Tuesday, police stopped Opposition party leaders from entering the village. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Braj Lal Khabri and Nasimuddin Siddiqui were stopped at the Nawabganj toll plaza, Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators Vinod Chaturvedi and Manoj Pandey were stopped at Kalpi and Azad Marg in Kanpur Dehat. SP legislator Amitabh Bajpai was placed under house arrest in Kanpur.
Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the victims’ family should get justice and strict action should be taken against the culprits.
“The BJP government’s inhuman actions through the bulldozer have become a threat to humanity and sensitivity… the heart-rending incident of Kanpur is condemnable. We all have to raise our voice against this inhumane action. The victims’ family should get justice and strict action should be taken against the culprits,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.
