A 23-year-old Dalit woman was found dead in Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh, with her family alleging she was killed for refusing to vote in favour of the Samajwadi Party candidate in the Karhal assembly bypoll.

According to a PTI report, the police on Wednesday arrested two people accused of abducting and killing the woman. The woman’s father in a complaint accused a local Samajwadi Party leader Prashant Yadav of abducting his daughter.

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In the FIR, he alleged that his daughter was kidnapped around 12 pm on
Tuesday and later poisoned to death by Yadav with the help of one Dr. Mohan Katheria.

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The woman’s body was found in a field near Kanjara village on Wednesday morning. Vinod Kumar, superintendent of police (SP), told PTI,”Both the accused Dr. Mohan Katheria and Prashant Yadav named in FIR have been arrested and further investigation is in progress,” Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar told PTI.

BJP, SP trade charges over murder

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused SP of killing the woman as she refused to vote for SP. “In Karhal, Samajwadi Party leader Prashant Yadav and his associates murdered a Dait girl just because she had refused to vote for the ‘cycle’ (SP’s election symbol). In Mainpuri, the Saifai family and Akhilesh Yadav’s goons are again trying to create an atmosphere of terror,” the BJP posted a video of the grieving woman’s father on X.

“This is a conspiracy to defame the Samajwadi Party by the BJP, which often engages in such activities. This has nothing to do with the SP,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary told PTI.

In family bastion Karhal, SP’s Tej Pratap Singh, a grandson of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, is fighting the bypoll with a contest from his ‘fufa’ Anujesh Pratap Singh. The BSP has fielded Avanish Kumar Shakya.

The seat has a total seven candidates, including nominees of Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), Sarvjan Sukhay Party, Sarva Samaj Janata Party and one Independent.

The bypoll was necessitated after Akhilesh Yadav vacated the seat as its MLA upon being elected as the Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj parliamentary constituency earlier this year.

(With PTI inputs)