The killer must meet the same fate as my family, an anguished said on Friday after his son, daughter-in-law and two daughters aged six and one were gunned down by an unknown assailant.
The brazen wipeout of the Dalit family at their rented home in Ahorwa Bhawani area has drawn widespread denunciation of the state government. Sunil Kumar, 35, a government school teacher, his 32-year-old wife Poonam, and the couple's two daughters, Drishti and Suni were shot dead Thursday evening.
The killer has been suspected to be a man who once was accused by Poonam of harassing her.
In the wake of the incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath paid his condolences, while the opposition launched a sharp attack against the BJP dispensation over the law and order in the state.
An initial police probe revealed that Poonam had lodged a police complaint against Chandan Verma in Rae Bareli on August 18 under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and for harassment.
"If anything happens to me or my family, Verma should be held responsible for it," she had written in the complaint, Amethi Superintendent of Police Anoop Kumar Singh said Thursday.
It was yet to be determined if the two cases are related, he also said.
"The way my son has gone, they (killers) should go the same way," Ram Gopal, whose son was the sole breadwinner of the family, said on Friday.
"With my son gone, I am left with no one to take care of the house," he said. "I am over 60 years old and I have one more son, who lives separately. If he can get a job, it would be good," he urged the government.
Ram Gopal said he does not know who Chandan Verma is or if he is the one who did the killings.
"I am a Harijan and I don't know what caste he is," he told reporters outside the mortuary here.
He, however, recalled his daughter-in-law once telling him that she had lodged a police complaint against him.
"Had any action been taken then, this would not have happened today," Ram Gopal said.
Meanwhile, a three-member team of doctors conducted the post mortem of the bodies in Amethi under videography.
Ram Gopal later took all four bodies to his native village, Sudamapur, in Rae Bareli's Unchahar.
Amethi police chief Anoop Kumar Singh said five police teams have been deployed to work on the case.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
