PRAYAGRAJ: A couple and their two children were found brutally murdered inside their house at Gohri Mohanganj village under the limits of Phaphamau police station in trans- Ganga area of Prayagraj on Thursday morning. The motive behind the killing was yet to be ascertained.
The police identified the deceased as Phoolchandra (50), his wife Meenu Devi (45) and their children Sapna (17) and Shiv (13).
While senior police officers, including DIG/SSP (Prayagraj) Sarvashreshth Tripathi, along with forensic experts and police force rushed to the spot after the incident, the DIG has placed the police inspector (Phulpur) under suspension on the charge of dereliction of duty.
After conducting preliminary investigations, Tripathi said, “Seven police teams have been pressed into action to crack the killings. The unidentified assailants used an axe to hit the head of all four victims.”
The DIG added that bodies of three persons were found lying in the verandah of the house while the body of the girl was lying inside the room. The police have detained four persons for interrogation.
“The police have compiled information regarding the incident and are working on different theories. We have come to know that among five brothers, the deceased had got the lowest share of land for agriculture. Also, the couple had lodged cases against some persons under SC/ST Act over property dispute in 2019 and 2021,” the DIG told TOI on Thursday.
He added, “The police are probing all the angles carefully and compiling evidence. The couple had recently reported to the police higher-ups against the local police for taking no action on their complaints.”
Meanwhile, irked over the gruesome murders, residents of the villages did not allow the local police to take the bodies for postmortem for hours. They demanded action against the local police officers who did not act on the named complaints lodged by the couple against some persons of the village, resulting in the incident.
However, the villagers later relented after intervention of senior police officers and allowed the police to take the bodies for autopsy.
