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Prayagraj murder case: Dalit man held, UP police say was stalking deceased
Addressing a press conference, ADG Zone Prem Prakash said: “A scanning of the murdered 25-year-old woman’s WhatsApp messages revealed that she was constantly receiving messages from a number that was traced to the accused Pawan Kumar Saroj, a labourer.”
The Prayagraj Police on Sunday arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit family in the district. The police also said that one of the deceased, who was raped, was not a minor, according to the official documents accessed by them.
A 50-year-old man, his 47-year-old wife, daughter, who police said was 25, and 10-year-old son – were found dead on their beds inside their home in Prayagraj district on Thursday morning by relatives. An autopsy report suggested that they were strangulated and assaulted with an axe.
A written complaint to the police by one of the relatives of the victims mentioned a land dispute and alleged that members of an upper-caste family had issued physical and verbal threats to the Dalit family in the past.
Police, however, said that the accused, also a Dalit, was stalking the woman and carried out the crime after she rejected his advances.
Addressing a press conference, ADG Zone Prem Prakash said: “A scanning of the murdered 25-year-old woman’s WhatsApp messages revealed that she was constantly receiving messages from a number that was traced to the accused Pawan Kumar Saroj, a labourer.”
Police said they detained Saroj for questioning, during which he confessed to stalking the woman. They were, however, yet to establish how he carried out the murders and who his accomplices were. Officials added that they will now take the accused’s DNA samples to gather evidence.
The ADG said that the education certificates accessed by them showed that woman was born in 1996 and the charges filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act will no longer be applicable.
The incident sparked protests in the region with politicians making a beeline to the victims’ village and local residents alleging police negligence. Initially, police registered an FIR against 11 persons for murder and rape under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Police officials said they were yet to find evidence to establish the involvement of the eight people, all upper caste, arrested earlier in the case.
They also suspended three policemen, including the station house officer of the local station, for laxity in connection with the incident.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had met the kin of the victims. “The women in the family are living in terror and are scared that they may face harassment again,” she said.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking an appointment with him to discuss the incident. “The family had been communicating their apprehensions about this incident to the police since 2019,” he said in the letter.
