A day after six members of a family were killed in Lepa-Bhidosa village of Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, the bodies of the victims were cremated after high drama through the day on Saturday, with the relatives of the deceased seeking the arrest of the accused and alleging police inaction.
Refusing to conduct the last rites of the deceased, relatives demanded that security arrangements be made for the family and sought eight arms licences.
“We demanded security for the remaining members of the family and eight arm licences. We also sought the demolition of houses of the accused and houses for us under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,” a relative of the deceased, Parvat Singh, said.
The bodies were cremated later in the day, amid heavy police presence in the village, after the state government promises houses, BPL cards, five arms licenses to those without a criminal background, and a financial aid of ₹5 lakh, said Ankit Asthana, Morena district collector.
“The cremation was done along the banks of Asan river after we assured the family members of fulfilling their demands,” Morena superintendent of police Shailendra Chauhan said.
On Friday, six people, including three women, were shot dead after they returned to the village after nearly a decade. The assailants, who blamed the victims’ family for the murder of their relatives over a piece of land in the past, were waiting for them, a woman who survived the attack alleged said.
The deceased were identified as Gajendra Singh, Sanju, Satyaprakash, Les Kumari, Babli Tomar, and Madhu Kumari.
Of the nine assailants, police arrested two, Rajjo and Dheer Singh, on Friday evening and booked them for murder under Section 302 of IPC. The police have also announced a reward of ₹10,000 on the arrest of the absconding accused, said WHO.
The relatives of the victims, however, alleged that delay in police action.
Alleging collusion between the accused and the police, Gajendra Singh’s wife Kusuma said, “Police personnel were not present at the police station due to a conspiracy.”
In a video of the incident, that has been widely shared on social media, family members of the victims can be seen pleading with police officers at the Sihonia police station to come to their aid. However, a constable could be heard saying they were waiting for additional forces.
HT has seen the video.
Refuting the allegations, inspector general of police Sushant Saxena said, “We enquired into the matter and checked CCTV footages. The video of the incident was shot at 9.43am. The victims’ family reached the police station at around 9.46am and a police team was dispatched at 10.01am. Even, in the viral video, the vehicle was seen ready and constable was asking someone over phone to come fast. The police reached the at 10.14am and at 10.30, police left for hospital with injured in Dial 100.”
During interrogation, Dheer Singh said that it was not a planned attack, a police officer, seeking anonymity, said.
“Gajendra and his family members started fighting with the accused and they (the victim) can be seen with canes and attacking them the accused family in the viral video. Later, the accused came with two rifles, which were borrowed from a relative. Police also checked that the accused don’t have any arms license but we are yet to verify whether the guns were licensed or illegal,” the police officer said.
A second officer pointed to the inadequacy of staff at the Sihonia police station.
“Sihonia police station covers the 26 villages and 56 tolas in the radius of 15 km. We only have a staff of 10 people,” the second officer said requesting anonymity.