Three persons of a family were shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district early on Friday by land sharks who had been harassing the victims with the alleged backing of a section of police and revenue department officials.
Later, villagers torched a dozen houses at Mohiddipur village in the Sandipan Ghat area in retaliation.
The attackers broke open the door of 62-year-old Hori Lal’s hut around 2am and fired indiscriminately at him, his daughter Braj Kali, 22, and son-in-law Shiv Sagar, 26. Their neighbours, who heard the sound of firing, rushed them to hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival. Angry villagers set on fire the houses of the alleged attackers, who had run away after the murders.
Ram Singh, a villager, told reporters: “Hori Lal had a house in nearby Chhabilva village and a piece of land in Mohiddipur where he had built a hut. Some land sharks wanted to grab his plot with the help of their henchmen in the village. A case was pending with the revenue department, but its officials had been piling pressure on Hori Lal to sell the land to the mafias. Revenue officials and some policemen would often visit the village and misbehave with Hori Lal.”
“Recently, Shiv Sagar had opened a common service centre (for e-services) at a rented shop near their hut,” Singh said.
The villagers said they were waiting for the bodies of the three but wouldn’t allow anybody to cremate them. They demanded immediate arrest of the land sharks, their henchmen and their "supporters in the revenue department and the police".
Brijesh Kumar Srivastava, superintendent of police of Kaushambi, said the allegations against the officials were being investigated and it was too early to comment.
“We have registered a case against six persons and are trying to arrest them. The villagers have claimed that there was a land dispute. We are investigating every aspect of the case and the guilty will be punished.”
“Personnel from several police stations have been deployed in the village to maintain peace”, Srivastava added.