Two held for killing three members of family in UP’s Kaushambi, six accused absconding

Two persons have been arrested for allegedly shooting dead three members of a family over a land dispute in a village here, police said on Friday. The incident took place around 2 am on Thursday when the trio were sleeping in their house in Chhabilepur village under the Sandipan Ghat police station area here, they added.

A total of eight persons have been booked in the case, the police said.

Shivsharan (30), his wife Brijkali (25) and his father-in-law Horilal (60), who were Dalits and belonged to the Pasi community, died in the incident, the police said.

Police said that Shivsharan had purchased a plot of land next to his in-laws’ place in Chhabilepur three years ago and was living there with his wife.

His father-in-law Horilal also used to come to their place frequently, they added. Expressing ire over the incident, the villagers torched a few thatched houses following which a police force rushed to the village and the fire was extinguished.

The villagers also pelted stones, during which Pushpendra Gautam, the tehsildar of Chail, received head injuries.

Initially, the villagers did not allow the police to take the bodies of the deceased for post-mortem. However, they relented after being pacified by the police officials.

Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Srivastava, who reached the spot along with his team, said that a land dispute led to the incident and added that the fire in the houses has been extinguished.

Based on a complaint by Horilal’s son Subhash Kumar, a case has been registered against eight persons — Guddu Yadav, Arvind Singh, Amit Singh, Suresh, Anuj Singh, Rajendra Singh, Ajit Singh and Amar Singh — all residents of Kaushambi district, the SP said.

The accused have been booked under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Law Amendment Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he added.

Two persons have been arrested and eight teams have been formed to nab the remaining six accused, the SP said.

Following the murder incident, heavy police force and PAC personnel have been deployed in the village.

The SP said that the situation now is completely under control. ADG (Prayagraj zone) Bhanu Bhaskar, IG (Prayagraj range) Chandra Prakash and Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant also visited the spot.