On Monday, October 2, five people of the Dubey family of the Fatehpur village of the Deoria district, lying in Uttar Pradesh, and Premchand Yadav, were killed; the reason behind the carnage being a decade-long land dispute between the Dubey and Yadav families. Till now, the police have arrested 20 people in connection with the case, and the district administration is planning on to take action against the illegal properties of Premchand Yadav.
The district administration, led by SDM Judicial, Seema Pandey, spent a day examining Premchand Yadav’s property, along with that of the accused in the case. Officials have stated that if irregularities are found after the examination of the disputed properties, then bulldozer action will be initiated.
The massacre of 5 members of the Dubey family, including the head, Satya Prakash Dubey, and former zila panchayat member, Premchand Yadav, took place in broad daylight on October 2, in less than a span of 30 minutes. What started off as a land-dispute resulted in the killing of 6 people including minors and women, and has now fanned tension in the region of concern, leading to heavy deployment of police personnel in the village and the surrounding regions.
As per SP Sankalp Sharma, preliminary investigation says that back in 2014, Premchand Yadav had bought 10 bighas of land from Gyanchand Dubey, Satya Prakash’s elder brother. This sale was opposed by Satya Prakash, and hence he filed a lawsuit. It was a few years after selling the farm that Gyanchand left the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The case filed in 2014 is still pending, and this dispute took an ugly turn on October 2 when, at around 7.30 AM, Premchand Yadav went to examine the land piece he had purchased, near Satya Prakash Dubey’s residence. This was when even Dubey arrived at the scene, and made some comments against Yadav, after which he went back home. A few minutes later, Yadav arrived at Dubey’s house, and the two had a serious argument.
The situation soon exacerbated, as a result of which, a woman from Dubey’s family attacked Yadav with blunt instruments, leading to his death. After the news of Premchand Yadav’s death spread through the village, a crowd of his supporters barged into Dubey’s house, and bludgeoned him, his wife, his son, and two daughters, to death. Another son of Dubey survived the attack, and is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
Satya Prakash’s 18-year-old son, Sarvesh Dubey, had went out when the incident occurred, and has alleged that Yadav came to their residence, and intimidated his father before proceeding to beat him. He added that Yadav had also misbehaved with his sister. Sarvesh stated how the mob had encircled his father before murdering him in front of everyone.
On the other hand, the bereaved wife of Premchand Yadav, Sheela Yadav, said that her husband had received a call on Monday morning, after which he left alone in haste on his bike. She further stated that Yadav was not aware that the Dubey family had assimilated a group of people in their house to attack him, and went alone.
‘The people at Dubey’s house attacked and killed him. When we received a call from there, I asked my father-in-law to go there but we don’t know what actually happened.’, added Sheela.
Sheela Yadav then stated that her family wishes death for the entire Dubey family.
