Pioneer News Service/Fatehpur

It was a black Sunday for Kamla when cruel hand of fate snatched her only son, 18-month-old Ashish. Ashish, having a bath on his mother's lap, was snatched by the killers and beaten by a lathi. Not satisfied with this, the assassins picked up the child and smashed his head on the road.

Her husband Ram Bahadur, a constable with the Border Security Force (BSF), is currently posted in Jammu and Kashmir. Kallu, Kamla's father, helplessly watched the gory incident.

The men than attacked six-year-old Pooja, grand-daughter of Kallu. She also succumbed to lathi blows. Then it was the turn of a 12-year-old Lalita, daughter of Kamla. She was raped in front of her mother and was later done to death. When Kamla narrated the horrendous tale to the BSP leader Mayawati on Monday in Hasanpur village, tears welled up Ms Mayawati's eyes.

They had earlier killed Tejania, mother of Kamla, in a field near the village. Tejania along with her daughter-in-law Jagpatia was working in the field when she was attacked by one Deviden Singh along with his brother-in-law and other accomplices. Both succumbed to their injuries. For the next five hours nobody from the terror-stricken Dalit family dared to go near the bodies. Police carted them to the mortuary near the district jail.

Even after 24 hours of the incident the belongings of Tejania -- a bucket, steel plate, tumbler, slippers and a half-eaten musk-melon -- were still lying in the field on Monday when Ms Mayawati visited the spot.

The district administration denied the right of performing cremation of the dead to the family members.

The post-mortem was conducted in the open at 9 pm, when it was raining. The district administration provided an umbrella and a lantern to the doctor conducting the post-mortem.

As soon as the district magistrate of Fatehpur RS Verma and the district police chief Rajesh Rai got wind of Ms Mayawati's visit, a quick decision was taken. Immediately after completing the medico-legal formalities of post mortem the five bodies were put in a police van and headed to the Ganga for dumping. Kallu's request to hand over the bodies fell on deaf ears.

The Dalits were told that the bodies had been thrown into the Ganga as it would ensure `moksha' to the departed souls.

A visibly shaken Ms Mayawati said, "the least one expected from the Government was to give permission to the family members to perform the last rites as per Hindu customs." She said the Dalits were denied even the minimum human dignity and the last rites were performed against their customs. "The so-called last rites was performed at the dead of night that too by dumping the bodies in the Ganga," she said.