Police have cordoned off a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district where a Dalit was killed while trying to protect her daughter from being abducted by an upper-caste youth.

The deceased has been identified as Sunita Devi, 50. Her 20-year-old daughter
Rubi Kumari has been kidnapped.

The incident has ignited tension in the locality, with the deceased’s husband Satyendra Kumar refusing to perform her last rites till the accused is nabbed and his daughter is brought home safe.

According to the police, the incident occurred on Thursday morning at Kapsad village in Sardhana when the two women were on their way to their fields. They were intercepted by the accused, identified as Paras Singh, 25.

Rubi’s elder brother Mandeep Kumar told reporters on Friday that Paras attacked Sunita Devi with an axe when she tried to prevent him and his three friends from forcibly taking Rubi away. “Eyewitnesses identified one of Paras’s friends
as Sunil Kumar. But they didn’t know the other two,” Mandeep said.

The police have registered a case against the two named and two unnamed accused.

Satyendra said his wife was rushed to the hospital soon after some villagers informed him about the incident. “Her head and neck injury was so severe that she died during treatment on Thursday night. We have decided not to perform her last rites till the kidnapper is handed instant punishment and my daughter comes home safe.”

Sources said several Opposition leaders, including local Samajwadi Party MLA Atul Pradhan, have been sitting on a dharna outside the village after the police stopped them from meeting the family.

“We are trying to maintain law and order and convince the family to conduct the last rites of the woman. We have provided security to the family and police teams are trying to recover the girl and arrest the killer,” Abhijit Kumar, superintendent of police of Meerut (Rural), said.

A family member of the victim alleged that the police were misleading their seniors in Lucknow by trying to prove that Paras and Rubi were having an affair.

“We have come to know that the Meerut police have prepared a report stating that Rubi was in a relationship with the boy. It is a lie. The truth is that Paras had tried to molest Rubi a few months ago, and she had complained about it to her parents. Her parents took the matter to the local panchayat, which asked Rubi not to file a case and directed Paras to pay a fine of ₹50,000 to the girl’s parents,” the family member said.

Pradhan accused the government of delaying action against the accused as he belonged to a dominant caste in the area. “We all know that the killer is close to the ruling party,” Pradhan told reporters outside the village. He demanded ₹50 lakh compensation for the family, a job for the deceased’s son, quick recovery of the girl, arrest of the killers and “bulldozer action” against them.

“The recent incident in the Sardhana police station area of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where a Dalit mother was murdered and her daughter abducted, is extremely tragic, shameful and deeply concerning,” BSP chief Mayawati posted on X.