The Umaria district police, along with a team of special task force (STF) and the CID, is probing the gruesome murder of Chandraika Rai, a newspaper distributor-cum-reporter, his wife Durga Rai and their two grown-up children — a son and a daughter — during the intervening night of February 17-18.
Commenting on media reports speculating that Chandrika Rai and his wife Durga Rai, who was a Janpad member, their son Jalaj (20) and daughter Nisha (16) were brutally eliminated by the mining mafia, home minister Umashankar Gupta said on Monday that it would be wrong to jump to any conclusion before the police completes the investigation.
When contacted, Shahdol IGP Arun Pratap Singh told this newspaper that from the investigation conducted so far, there is nothing to prove the involvement of the mining mafia in the multiple murder case. Mr Singh said that it would not be advisable to share more investigation related information at this stage.
While journalists have condemned the incident and demand is being raised for a CBI probe, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh said that Chandrika was writing against illegal mining in the Umaria belt in eastern Madhya Pradesh.
Police sources told this correspondent that there is evidence of “friendly entry” and signs to indicate that all the family members were killed by some one closely known to them. A hotel owner in the neighbourhood has told the police that he had seen Chandrika along with an “unidentified person” when they had come to his hotel to buy fish on the ill-fated night.