A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident at Kanpur, wherein two women were burnt to death while protesting the encroachment of their home.
The order for the inquiry was issued by Kanpur Dehat’s (rural) District Magistrate, Neha Jain, on Wednesday afternoon.
On February 13, in village Mandoli (Metha tehsil) of rural Kanpur, a magisterial officer; and officers from the revenue and police department were getting an encroachment on a 0.650-hectare land removed when the mother and daughter duo of Pramila and Neha Dixit were set ablaze. Though the initial speculation was that they did this to protest the evacuation, there have also been talks of them having forcibly set on fire.
Both mother and daughter have died and police reports under Sections 302, 307, 436, 429, 323 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code have been filed against 39 people.
Ankit Dixit, the son of Krishna Gopal, whose hut was demolished has said that his mother and sister had locked themselves up in a room to escape the Lekhpal (a revenue officer) who was present on the site. “He went from the back, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire”, said Dixit. “A policeman also tried to shove me into the fire”, he said.
The administration’s version is that the Dixits had encroached upon the land and built a room initially. When the administration objected to it, they built an entire hut. On Monday, the administration was out in full force to demolish the hut.
Though a policeman also sustained burns while trying to save the mother-daughter, the angry villagers overturned the police vehicle and did not allow the bodies to be taken away for quite a while. The initial demand was that the state’s chief minister or one of his deputies come to the spot. The Lekhpal was also hurt by an axe while the rest of the team was chased out of the village.
The video of the incident makes it clear that the mother was fine- at least for a while. She was heard shouting that she and her daughter had been set on fire but initially only the thatched roof of the hut was on fire. The present policewomen had also broken down the door. Yet it remains unclear why the women were not rescued before they were engulfed by the flames.
Meanwhile, Congress has been protesting against the state government, in front of the Governor’s residence chanting “Yeh Sarkar janta virdohi hai” (This government is anti-people).
