Do you have food to share, asks Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi spent almost an hour talking to the surviving family members and elders of the village, enquiring about the unfortunate incident.

Dohre (52), his wife Longsri, son Arjun, daughter-in-law Soni and grandson Rinku were brutally killed on the intervening night of March 12 and 13 while the police, stationed at close proximity proved helpless to save them.

Dohre, an activist of a Dacoit reformist movement, ‘Chambal Ghati Vinoba Bhave Mission’, lived nearly 500 metres away from Ekdil police station and had also been threatened of dire consequences for his reform work in the past.

He survived by four grandchildren, all girls between the age of three to seven months. Dohre’s son-in-law Survesh who was visiting the family on the fateful night also survived the assault and is the complainant and prime witness in the case.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is accompanying Gandhi, said the party has announced Rs 2.5 lakh as compensation to the family members the victims.

“The women in the village told Gandhi how their life was insecure in the Chambal belt due to dacoits and also about a lack of political will to combat the menace,” Joshi said.

After visiting the family, Gandhi held a detailed discussion with the village elders and asked them about the extent of dacoit terror in the region.

“He asked us to put forward a united front against the dacoits and promised all help from his side to fight terror,” Asharam, an elder of the village, said.

In his attempts to have one-to-one meeting with people, the Amethi MP stopped his carcade a few meters away from the village and visited a potato field and spent substantial time with the farmers working there.

Sitting down in the field, he also shared lunch with one of the labourer family before leaving the village.

“He asked us if we have some food to share with him. We offered him ‘chapaties with chutney’ to eat,” Askari Begum of nearby Ekdil village said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav too had visited the village in the past two days.

Some local people also alleged that Dohre was involved in a land dispute which, they say, resulted in the killings.

Uttar Pradesh police, though denied any formal statement on the issue, have claimed they have arrested one person in this connection.