Kanpur: A family in Uttar Pradesh alleged that its two women members died when police set their huts ablaze during anti-encroachment drive on Monday.
The 45-year-old woman and her daughter, 20, died in fire allegedly when they were inside the house in the village of Madauli in Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh, NDTV reported.
The villagers claimed the family was not given any notice ahead of the officials arriving on Monday morning with a bulldozer.
The state police have registered a murder case against 13 people despite local police claimed Pramila Dixit and her daughter Neha set themselves on fire.
Officers facing charges of attempt to murder include the subdivisional magistrate, the station house officer alongside the bulldozer operator.
The district administration and revenue officials had come to remove encroachment from government land in the Rura area of the district when the incident occurred, police said.
A police officer reportedly said that Pramila's husband, Gendan Lal and Station House Officer Dinesh Gautam were injured as they tried to save the women.
"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 (District Magistrate). Everybody ran, nobody could save my mother," Shivam Dixit was quoted as saying.
Superintendent of Police (SP) BBGTS Murthy claimed that the two women locked themselves inside the hut and set it on fire, adding that the police would probe the incident and not spare any guilty in case of wrong doing.
Following the deaths, villagers protested throwing bricks at the police, and demanded a First Information Report or FIR against the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and other officials.
Calling the Yogi Administration “insensitive’ the Opposition Samajwadi Party said Brahmins, like Dalits and backwards, are also a target of the government.