Killing over Rs 15: Shopkeeper may face NSA

AGRA: A brahmin grocer hacked a dalit couple to death for failing to return Rs 15 that they owed him, at Mainpuri early Thursday morning, police said.
The couple, Bharat Singh and Mamta, were from the Nat (acrobat) community . They owned a bigha of land and had five children. On Thursday , when they were headed for the fields, shopkee per Ashok Mishra confronted them, demanded the sum and allegedly murdered them with an axe when they said they'd need more time to pay.Every month, the couple bought their meagre supplies from Mishra and, some days ago, fell short of Rs 15 for their purchases. The couple promised to pay the amount soon. Days later, the grocer began hounding them.
The killings happened around 5.45am at Mainpuri, known to most as Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's family borough. And, it further angered dalits, fuming at recent attacks against them, in UP and elsewhere.
Mainpuri superintendent of police Dev Ranjan Verma said Mishra had been arrested and the axe seized. Additional forces were deployed in Mainpuri on Thursday after a shopkeeper hacked a dalit couple for not paying Rs 15.
Ashok Mishra, police said, reportedly rushed to his house after the couple pleaded inability to pay and grabbed an axe. He unleashed a murderous assault on Bharat Singh. As Singh fell to the ground bleeding, his wife Mamta begged Mishra to spare her husband's life. But the attacker kept slashing and hacking Bharat and then turned on her and cracked her skull.
“The couple was brutally murdered and Bharat's head severed from his neck. Both died on the spot. We have deployed additional forces,“ Mainpuri SP Dev Ranjan Verma said.
Mishra has been booked for murder and under sections of the SC and ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act. The police also plan to slap the stringent NSA on the shopkeeper.