Four arrested in Muzaffarnagar triple murder case

“The accused have been identified as Gulfam from Roorkee and Mohsin, Anis and Yunus from Bilaspur. We’re investigating further into the matter,” he said.

Villagers at Bahadurpur, had formed a ‘Sangharsh Samiti’, to take decisions pertaining to the triple murder — particularly with maintaining pressure on the administration and police to take quick and prompt action. The three victims — Surender Kumar (38), Kunwerpal (43), Sunder (28) — had been murdered on the lane leading to the village from Jansath road at a little after 7.30 pm on Saturday. Their mutilated bodies were found the next morning by the villagers after a search operation. Police sources said the four arrested men were traced through their call-detail records, which, the police claimed, put them in the vicinity of the road where the murders took place.

The police said the autopsy report had revealed that all three had been repeatedly attacked by the same sharp instrument. Most of the injuries were on the neck and the head. All three had also received injuries in the groin area. However, the police are yet to trace the weapon.

The situation in the village, since the murders, has been tense. Reports of ‘masked men’ and ‘shadowy figures’ in the fringes of the village had worsened the fear among villagers. But the police continued to state that no evidence had been found to justify these reports and classified them as ‘rumours’. The information about the arrests were announced to the media in the evening after the Mahapanchayat at the village took place despite having no permission from the administration, under heavy police deployment.

Police sources said that the mahapanchayat was attended by over 200 people. “Our main demand was that arrests be made. Every day we feel threatened and there are people surrounding the village and making life impossible for us. Those who’ve lost their loved ones should receive compensation,” said Suresh, the brother of the deceased Surender.