The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission has sought within three weeks a report from the Director General of Police and the Superintendent of Police, Ashoknagar, on the reported killing of a tribal man and injury to four others by a group over a land dispute. The group even burned down their hut.
The Commission’s Chairperson Narendra Kumar Jain on Saturday sent the notices to the officials over the incident which occurred on May 26 at the Kulua Chakk village of the district.
The police had announced a reward of ₹60,000 for information about the main accused Girraj Yadav and others, who were absconding. On Thursday, tribals from 200 villages threatened to hit the streets if the culprits were not arrested within two days.
“The accused are yet to be arrested,” Shareef Mohammed Siddiquie, Assistant Director, Ashoknagar administration, told The Hindu . The authorities gave ₹8,25,000 to the wife of the deceased, Khuman Singh, and ₹75,000 each to the four injured, under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Around 5 p.m. on May 26, Khuman’s son Mohar Singh was cutting a babul tree using an axe in the field, when Balram Yadav, father of Girraj, told him not to chop the tree as the land belonged to him. However, Mohar claimed ownership of the tree, and said he has a right to cut it, Khilan Singh, 21, the other son of the deceased, told the police.
At that point, Balram allegedly started hurling slurs at Mohar, and called up his son, who, along with the other accused, reached the spot. They attacked Khuman and his family, and set their hut that stored wheat on fire.
The family has alleged that the accused had grabbed their land.
Hearing the retort, Balram hurled slurs at him and called his son on the phone, who arrived in two vehicles along with the other accused half an hour later. They started hitting the father first with a weapon, then his sons and a daughter. Eventually, they set light to the hut where they resided and had stored wheat. The family has alleged the accused had grabbed the land which belonged to them.
The police have registered a case against seven identified and 35 unidentified persons under sections 307 (Attempt to murder), 147 (Punishment for rioting), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 436 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) and 294 (Obscene acts and songs) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Sources at the district administration say the police had last year charged BJP MP KP Yadav, who defeated then Congressman Jyotiraditya Scindia in the Lok Sabha election for allegedly furnishing wrong information to get a "non-creamy layer OBC" certificate based on a complaint of the same Girraj Yadav, who is an associate of a Congress MLA.
