Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Monday demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder and burial of five members of a tribal family in Nemawar town here.
Mr Nath, along with party colleagues Arun Yadav, Kantilal Bhuria, Sajjan Singh Verma, Jitu Patwari and Nakul Nath, on Monday met the family of the dead and announced financial help of ₹ 25 lakh on behalf of his party.
As per the police, their probe zeroed in on one Surendra Rajput, who confessed that he and one of the dead, Rupali, were in a relationship and his marrying another girl had angered her.
Rajput has told police that he got angry after Rupali wrote a post containing wrong information about the girl he was about to marry, and gathered his brother Virendra and friends Vivek Tiwari, Rajkumar, Manoj Korku and Karan Korku and killed the five and buried them in a field, the SP said.
“Their bodies have been found in the spot which was revealed to us by Rajput during questioning. Brothers Surendra and Virendra, as well as Vivek Tiwari, Rajkumar, Manoj Korku and Karan Korku, along with one Rakesh Nimore, to whom the accused had given Rupali’s mobile phone, have been arrested,” the official added.
Congress leader and former minister Sajjan Singh Verma claimed those arrested were close to the BJP, adding that the incident took place near Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s constituency, which just showed the poor state of law and order in MP.
However, state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the main accused as well as co-accused were associated with the Congress, adding that the opposition party’s plan to make it a “tribal versus upper caste” issue would not materialise as two of those arrested were tribals.