MP: Six of family shot dead on return to village in Chambal region after 10 years

Six members of a family including three women were shot dead on Friday after they returned to their village in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district after a decade, police said.

The assailants, who apparently blamed the victims' relations for the murder of some people in their family in the past, were waiting for them, a woman who survived the bloodbath told reporters. The killings took place around 10 am at Lepa village, about 60 km from the district headquarters.

The village adjoins Bhidosa, the birthplace of athlete-turned-dacoit Paan Singh Tomar. Three of the victims died on the spot while others succumbed while being rushed to the district hospital, Inspector General of Police (Chambal Zone) S Saxena told PTI over phone.

Three others were injured and are undergoing treatment, he added. Additional Superintendent of Police Rai Singh Narwariya identified the deceased as Gajendra Singh (55), Sanju (40), Satyaprakash (35), Les Kumari (46), Babli Tomar (age not known), and Madhu Kumari (36). IGP Saxena said that police have identified eight persons allegedly involved in the murder and a case has been registered against them. Kusuma Tomar, who lost her husband, two sons and three daughters-in-law in the attack, told reporters that their family had had a dispute with the accused in 2013 over a piece of government land.

"Two members of their family were killed back then. We had nothing to do with the killings, but the names of our family members were dragged in the case," she said. "Later a compromise deal was struck between them and our family in jail. We gave them Rs 6 lakh as compensation and transferred our land in their name," she added.

On Friday morning, when Kusuma and others returned to the village from Ahmedabad after ten years, the killers were waiting for them, she said. "The police arrived on the scene after two hours," she claimed. Notably, in the case of Paan Singh Tomar, whose story became the subject of an acclaimed Bollywood film starring Irrfan Khan, a land dispute was what apparently triggered his tragic descent into the world of crime.