The brutal murder of a family of five hailing from the tribal community, in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district, has kicked up a storm in the state, with the ruling party drawing huge flak from the Opposition and tribal outfits.
After having been missing for 47 days, the bodies of the five were exhumed on 29 June from an eight-foot-deep pit, merely a kilometre away from their one-room house in Nemawar.
The police said that the five, including three minors – Mamtabai (45), Rupali (21), Divya (14), and their cousins Pooja (15) and Pavan Oswal (14) – were hit with iron rods and strangled to death on the night of 13 May, by Surendra Chouhan and six others, after his love affair with Rupali went sour.
The police have arrested Surendra, his brother Virendra, and five others – Rajkumar Keer, Vivek Tiwari, Karan Korku, Manoj Korku and Rakesh Nemore – for the murders.
An Awry Affair
According to the police, Surendra and Rupali's relationship became hostile when he decided to marry someone else.
The police believe that Rupali's insistence on marriage and her attempt at defaming Surendra's fiancé through a dummy Instagram account prompted the former to murder her.
"She was in a relationship with Surendra for the last two years. However, Rupali often met her other male friends, which upset him," said Suryakant Sharma, additional superintendent of police, Dewas, who was probing the matter.
A week before the incident, when Rupali called Surendra at night, his phone was busy. Following this, she rushed to his home, snatched his mobile phone and noted down some details.
The next morning, when Surendra took back his mobile phone, Rupali created a fake Instagram account in his fiancé's name. From that account, Rupali posted his fiancé's mobile number with the message: "I'm open for friendship with anyone," in a bid to defame her, the police said.
Murders Inspired By a Crime Thriller
Surendra couldn't bear his fiancé's humiliation and planned to kill Rupali. "Inspired by a crime thriller, he dug up a pit on his farmland and collected several kilograms of fertiliser (urea) and salt," said police.
On 13 May, Surendra called Rupali to that spot under the pretext of resolving the issue of marriage with her. She went there with her cousin Pavan to meet Surendra.
"Surendra's friends stopped Pavan a few metres away from where Surendra was standing as Rupali went to Surendra. However, hit her with an iron rod and strangled her before she could call for help," the ASP said.
Subsequently, Surendra asked Pavan to call Rupali's mother, saying that she tried to kill herself.
As Rupali's mother arrived at the crime scene, once more Surendra's friends stopped Pavan metres away, before killing her. With the mother and daughter dead, Surendra now asked Pavan to call both of Rupali's sisters, under the pretext of taking her to the hospital after her attempt to kill herself.
When the trio reached the spot, both the minor girls were killed in a similar manner and Pavan was strangled last.
Their bodies were then thrown into the pit. It was covered up after dumping layers of urea and salt on the bodies in order to hasten the process of decomposition.
Tracing, Informers & Interrogation: How Cops Solved the Case
Rupali's eldest sister Bharti registered a missing report at Nemawar police station on 17 May, four days after the murder, as she failed to establish contact with the family.
"Two days after the incident, when police went to Harda where Rupali had rented a room, the landlord identified Surendra as her husband. But the police didn't act," claimed Bharti, who works in a factory in Dhar district and wasn't at home at the time of incident.
A senior police officer associated with the case told The Quint, "We were tracing over 80 mobile numbers and had teams visit various districts, like Sehore, Hoshangabad, and Khandwa, since Rupali's phone was still active and she was constantly posting updates on Instagram, where she had more than 6,000 followers."
"Rupali's location was constantly changing, but the police team returned with no lead. Meanwhile, she was texting her sister about the family," the officer said.
Two days after the FIR, Bharti had received a message from Rupali's phone where she assured that everyone was with her. She also informed that she would soon marry a man named Rahul and that she would never meet Bharti.
But between 25 and 26 May, when the police traced Rupali's last location to Choral Dam, a well-known picnic spot near Indore, the cops smelled a rat.
"We failed to understand why a person who did not want to be found was visiting a popular picnic spot. We realised that someone else was carrying her mobile," ASP Sharma told The Quint.
The following day, police rounded up 23 male friends of Rupali and interrogated them, but Surendra did not turn up.
Meanwhile, a police informer who was a friend of Virendra, was tasked to take him out for drinks. After a drinking bout, he boasted that "Police kabhi Rupali ko nahi khoj sakti woh aisi jagah hai. (The police will never be able to find where Rupali is)."
The following day, police rounded up a person who worked in Surendra's field. Within minutes of interrogation, he took the cops to the spot where they recovered the bodies.
Political Links With Right-Wing Parties
The Quint came across multiple photos of Surendra with BJP MLA from Khategaon, Ashish Sharma, as well as with Kartike Singh Chouhan, the son of the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, which was taken during a visit to Nemawar.
In addition, Surendra was affiliated with the Hindu outfits – Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Kesari Sanghatan and Hindu Jagran Manch – and was active during the fund-collection drives for Ayodhya's Ram Mandir.
"When a local TV reporter raised our issue prominently, the accused, Surendra, and his friends carried out a rally and submitted a complaint at the local police station to book the journalist who reported the murders. He accused him for defaming Hindu sentiments on a Facebook post under the banner of Hindu Jagran Manch."Mohan Patel Uikey, District President of Gondwana Gantantra Party, a tribal political outfit
"If police would have acted on time, my family would be alive," alleged Santosh Kaste, a member of the family, while talking to The Quint.
"My sister Bharti had alerted the police on many occasions and prima facie the investigation had also hinted towards Surendra. But owing to his links with the local BJP MLA, the Nemawar police neither acted on time nor interrogated him," said Kaste, a labourer who lives in Goa.
On 4 July, a massive rally was organised by the tribal outfits – Gondwana Gantantra Party and Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti – in which nearly 10,000 members of the tribal community participated, demanding strict action against the accused.
A day after the protests, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition, Kamal Nath visited the family on 5 July and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder.
Nath announced Rs 5 lakh aid to the family for each death from the party fund. The Congress also sent a delegation of ministers and MLAs to Nemawar.
Soon, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the case will be heard before a fast-track court and also said that the family would be given Rs 41.5 lakh as per the provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act, 1989.
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