Tension prevailed in the communally sensitive Muzaffarnagar district after three persons were butchered to death. The horrifying murders took place on the wee hours of Sunday in Bahadurpur Kheri village under the jurisdiction of Sikhera police station. Villagers alleged that it was a communal killing as the bodies were hacked into pieces with sharp-edged weapons.
The police said that three workers were returning to their residence in Bahadurpur Kheri village from a chemical factory situated on Panipat Khatima Highway on the bypass of Muzaffarnagar. They left the factory at 12.00 midnight and were supposed to reach their homes within an hour. However, when they did not reach their homes till 4.00 am, their family members came out of their homes in groups and conducted a search. After an hour or so, they found three dead bodies in the nearby agriculture fields.
“The bodies were partly stripped, their trousers were taken away after they were murdered,” villagers alleged. Angry over the killings of the three persons, the villagers put the bodies on Panipat-Khatima highway and blocked traffic. Senior police officers reached the post and tried to restore sanity, but villagers refused to budge who claimed that the three persons were murdered in hate crime with communal overtones.
The police failed to restore traffic and villagers flocked the spot. The District Magistrate (DM) and SSP managed to convince the villagers that the criminals will be nabbed soon. The DM reportedly assured the villagers that they will recommend compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the killed. Those killed have been identified as The three have been identified as Surender, Kunwerpal and Sunder, a police official said.
Normalcy was finally restored on Sunday afternoon and traffic bottlenecks were removed from the highway. "Cases have been registered and special teams have been constituted to nab the criminals at the earliest. The district administration has recommended a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next kin of the deceased persons," said N Ravindran, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Saharanpur Range.