A mother and daughter were killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat district after the police set their hut on fire during a demolition drive.
The deceased have been identified as 44-year-old Pramila Dixit and her 21-year-old daughter Neha Dixit.
Local police officials claimed that the two had set themselves on fire but the state police have registered a murder case against 13 persons, reported NDTV on Tuesday.
Those charged include the subdivisional magistrate, the station house officer and a bulldozer operator. They have also been charged with attempt to murder and voluntarily causing hurt.
“They started the fire while people were still inside. We were just about able to escape. They broke our temple. Nobody did anything, not even the DM. Everybody ran, nobody could save my mother,” said Shivam Dixit, the son of Pramila Dixit.
The incident took place in the Madauli village where the police, district administration and revenue officials had gone to remove encroachments from a government land, a police official said to NDTV.
The authorities arrived in the morning with a bulldozer and they were not given any prior notice, said locals.
Following the deaths, the angry villagers threw bricks at the police.
Samajwadi Party demanded that the accused persons be punished and alleged that the Bhartiya Janata Party has made “bulldozer a symbol to show its illegal power”.
“Under the Yogi (Adityanath) government, Brahmin families are targeted, and such incidents are taking place selectively. Like Dalits and backwards, Brahmins are also a target of atrocities of the Yogi government,” the opposition party said in a tweet in Hindi.