Police personnel investigate after four members of a family were shot dead at their home, in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: Opposition leaders in Uttar Pradesh on Friday attacked the BJP-led state government over law and order situation in the state, citing murder of four members of a Dalit family, including two children, inside their house in Amethi.
Sunil Kumar, 35, a government school teacher, his 32-year-old wife Poonam, and the couple's two daughters, Drishti and Suni, were shot dead in the Ahorwa Bhawani area of Amethi on Thursday. The brazen wipeout of the Dalit family has drawn widespread denunciation of the state government.
"The incident of the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit family in Amethi district of UP is extremely sad and worrying. The government should also take strict action against the culprits and the policemen there so that the criminals do not remain fearless," Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said on X in Hindi.
UP Congress president Ajay Rai said the incident shows that in the poor law and order of the Yogi government, a person is not safe even inside the house.
"The rule of law has been destroyed in the state. The flag of terror of goons, miscreants and criminals is flying high in UP and no step of the government is visible in the direction of ending this terror," Rai said.
"The Yogi government should answer how much worse will Uttar Pradesh be made now?" he said on social media.
Swami Prasad Maurya, president of Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party, condemned the incident.
"I am with the victim family in this hour of sorrow. I demand the immediate arrest of the criminals guilty of four murders," added the former UP minister.
Azad Samaj Party chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad said, "The incident in Amethi tells that there is no rule of law in Uttar Pradesh but jungle raj... The murder of the whole family in Amethi district is the real picture of the law and order of Uttar Pradesh.
"The truth is that there is no guarantee of the life of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, no one knows whose turn will come tomorrow, and the propaganda is that the law and order is very good," the Nagina Lok Sabha MP said in a long Hindi post on X.
Aazad said the incident of the mass murder by barging into their house is extremely sad and punishable, besides being a testimony to the fact that the security of Dalits is in a "pitiable state" and there is no one to listen to them.
"This is because if the police-administration had acted on Poonam Bharti's complaint of molestation and death threats a month-and-a-half ago, four lives would not have been lost today," he claimed.
"The insensitivity of the police-administration is also responsible for this mass murder," he said.
Demanding immediate arrest of the accused, the MP warned to start a protest in Amethi over any delay.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Thursday expressed grief over the incident.
In a post in Hindi on X, he said, "The incident that happened in Amethi district today is highly condemnable and unforgivable. My condolences are with the bereaved families.
"In this hour of grief, the UP government stands with the victim's family. The culprits of this incident will not be spared at any cost. Strict legal action will be taken against them," Adityanath said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had on Thursday evening criticised the BJP-led state government over the law and order situation through a brief cryptic post on social media.
"Koi Hai? Kahin hai? (Is anyone there? Is someone anywhere?)" Yadav posted while sharing a news clip of the incident.
Congress MP from Amethi Kishori Lal Sharma also attacked the government over the murders.
"In Shivratanganj area of Amethi, miscreants barged into a house and brutally shot dead Sunil Kumar, assistant teacher in a composite school, his wife and two children. The savage criminals killed the entire family," Sharma wrote in Hindi on X on Thursday.
"Hearing about this heart-rending incident sent shivers down the spine. The entire Amethi family is as upset as they are angry," he said.
"This mass murder is the result of the government's ruined law and order situation. The criminals are fearless. The police administration should immediately arrest the criminals and give them the harshest punishment," he added.
The CPI (ML) too has strongly condemned the mass murder of the Dalit teacher and his family in Amethi. Expressing huge anger over the incident, the party in a statement has demanded strictest punishment to the culprits.
CPI (ML) state secretary Sudhakar Yadav in a statement on Friday said Chief Minister Yogi's "encounter-happy" police has taken a lead in claiming the lives of the accused but has failed in protecting the lives of citizens.
He said the killers come at seven in the evening, enter the house in Amethi, kill the husband (teacher), wife and two minor daughters with bullets and leave comfortably. This is the reality of the law and order situation, whose example is given by the chief minister and top BJP leaders, he said.
Holding the state government responsible for the massacre, Yadav said in order to provide justice to the deceased family, apart from giving the harshest punishment to the killers, strict action should be taken against the guilty police officers, including the Raebareli SP for negligence.
He demanded that the relatives of the deceased should get compensation and the nearest one should get a government job.
Meanwhile, CPI (ML) demonstrated on Friday at the Raebareli district magistrate's office against the incident and demanded the arrest of the culprits.