Lucknow, June 18

The Fatehpur district police has nabbed one of the four accused named in the first information report (FIR) in connection with the brutal killing of five Dalits in a caste-conflict yesterday.

Home Department spokesman today said Ramakant Bajpai was taken into custody by the police following a search operation launched to nab the accused. The search for the other three is still on.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the recent spurt in the killings of Dalits in the state. “We have certain information about the conspiracy behind the killings before the Assembly poll,” Mr Rajnath Singh told reporters here but he did not identify the particular political group behind it.

In second case of caste conflict within a week, five members of a Dalit family were brutally killed in Hasanganj village under Husainganj police station area of Fatehpur district yesterday. They were identified as Sijaniya (60), her daughter- in-law Asha (35), and her three grandchildren Lalita (11), Pooja (six) and Ashish (one-and-a-half).

The spokesman said an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5.25 lakh had been granted to the next kin of the deceased, at the rate of Rs 1.50 lakh to the adults and Rs 75,000 to the minors.

Earlier, seven shepherd were kidnapped and strangulated to death in Fatehpur last week. UNI