Close on the heels of the killing of four members of a Dalit family in Prayagraj, a 55-year-old Dalit government official and his wife were found murdered in their house in Azamgarh on Monday morning.
Circumstantial evidence suggested that their throats were slit with some sharp-edged weapon by the assailants.
Superintendent of Police of Azamgarh, Anurag Arya, after visiting the scene of crime, said that Ram Nagina (55), working as a lekhpal (revenue record keeper) in the Consolidation department in Mau district, and his wife Mansa Devi (51) were murdered late on Sunday night while they were sleeping in their village home at Tithaupur in Tarwan police station area in Azamgarh,
“Some unidentified miscreants barged into the couple's home late Sunday night and killed them by slashing their throats with some sharp-edged weapon and left the scene. On being informed by the victims' neighbours, the police learnt about the double-murder on Monday morning. A police team rushed to the scene of crime with a dog squad and fingerprint experts and took the bodies in custody and sent them for autopsy,” the SP said.
The deceased Nagina was the eldest among three brothers and had three daughters, one of whom is married. The double-murder of the Dalit couple in Azamgarh took place within days after four members of a Scheduled Caste family were murdered in their village home at Gohri in Phaphamau police station area of Prayagraj on Wednesday night. The victims included a 50-year-old man and his wife aged 45 years, their 16-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. The relatives of the slain family members have alleged that a lingering land dispute between the victims and their neighbour, belonging to upper caste, was behind the multiple murders.
Meanwhile, reacting sharply to the murder of the Dalit couple, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati asked the state government to immediately check the recurrence of such incidents and take stern action against the guilty.
"It is an extremely shocking, painful and condemnable incident of the murder of a Dalit couple by slashing their throats in Azamgarh within days after the Prayagraj killings. The government must immediately stop such atrocities on Dalits and take strict action against the culprits,” the BSP president tweeted on Monday.
Meanwhile in Meerut, a 14-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the head while taking a selfie with a loaded gun in the Lisari Gate area on Sunday.
Uvaish Ahmed (14) was tinkering with a loaded gun and he positioned it at his temple as he posed for a selfie. Unfortunately, the gun was loaded and it went off killing the boy on the spot.
The police said that the victim's elder brother, Suhail, was recently sent to jail in a theft case and had criminal antecedents and the handgun perhaps belonged to him. Investigations are on to ascertain as to how Uvaish got access to the weapon.
The deceased boy's father meanwhile said that his son did not have any enmity and he was in a state of complete shock after this tragedy.
