House of double murder accused set ablaze, case registered

Nurpur, August 6

Some miscreants set ablaze the kutcha house of the double murder accused Ankush of the nearby Kopra village this afternoon.

In the ghastly incident of July 31, the accused, who is a drug addict, had brutally murdered an elderly couple with a sickle. He was nabbed by the police on the same day. A case under Section 320 of the IPC was registered against him.

During the cremation of the deceased on August 1 too, the local residents had unsuccessfully tried to torch the accused’s house, but the police had foiled their attempt.

Nurpur SP Ashok Ratan said he had deployed a police team to protect the house of the accused for six days till the situation became normal in Kopra gram panchayat and had also asked his family members to vacate the house as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident.

The SP said a case under Section 435 of the IPC has been registered against the unidentified miscreants who torched the house and further investigations are underway to identify them.

The anguished villagers and relatives of the deceased couple, along with the local gram panchayat, had protested and staged an hour-long dharna outside the Nurpur police station, demanding that the accused be handed over to them. However, the police had pacified the protesters by assuring them of a fair enquiry in the blind murder case.