A 23-year-old Dalit man has been arrested in the case involving the murder of a Dalit family in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj. The local police claim that he carried out the murders along with unidentified accomplices. The police also said the daughter, who was raped and killed, was not a minor and the Sections of the POCSO Act are being removed from the case

The police said the man, whom they have arrested, lives in a brick kiln behind the victims’ house. He was harassing the young woman.

The bodies of the family of four were found at their home on Thursday morning. The Police said they were attacked with a sharp weapon. The girl’s body was found in a room inside the house, the other three bodies were found in the courtyard.

A senior police official in Prayagraj, Prem Prakash, tweeted details of the fresh arrest, saying the name of the 23-year-old was Pawan Saroj and that he had sent a “I hate you” message to the woman hours before her death.

The woman, born in 1996, was a promising student, he said in another tweet. “She was preparing for various exams after graduating degree from a local university,” the tweet read.

The relatives of the family suspected that the murders were committed by a neighbouring family, involved in a property-related dispute with the victims. The alleged assailants family belonged to the so-called upper castes.

After they lodged a complaint, 8 people from the upper caste family were arrested. The police said they are yet to find any evidence implicating this family. Investigations against them are still on.

A relative of the victims had alleged that the police were trying to force a compromise between the two families in the land dispute case.

“The police were forcing the murder victims to compromise. Sushil Kumar (a police constable) used to come to us and pressure us to compromise. The police used to sit at their (accused) homes. The local inspector also told us to compromise,” the family member had told the media.