Bahraich (UP): An Uttar Pradesh legislator's son and a mining contractor have been booked for allegedly burying alive two children, including a Dalit, in Bhauri village of Bahraich district after locals resisted sand mining there.

MLA Subhash Tripathi refuted the allegation levelled against his son and termed it as a "conspiracy", while district administration has constituted a three-member committee to probe the matter. Bodies of Karan (10) and Nisar (11) were found on Friday in a drain in the village, adjacent to a place where mining was going on, following which irate villagers damaged the vehicles of contractors involved in the mining work. In his complaint to the police, Chetram, the father of Karan, a Dalit, said Nishank Tripathi and mining contractor Manoj Shukla were digging sand from his field instead of the area allotted to them. According to Chetram, on facing resistance, they buried alive the two children by putting sand on them with the help of a bulldozer, police said, adding an FIR was lodged yesterday against Nishank and Manoj on the charge of murder and under SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act.

Relatives mourning the death of 10-year-old Karan

However, the SHO of Baundi police station, where the FIR was registered, said that postmortem report says that the two died due to drowning. The BJP MLA from Payagpur constituency of Bahraich refuted the charge against his son and said, "A conspiracy is being hatched against my son. If charges are proved I will quit politics forever." A probe into the incident is being carried out by a three-member committee constituted by the district magistrate, comprising the SDM, mining officer and the police's circle officer.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan today urged the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind to participate in the last rites of the Dalit's son. Talking to reporters in Rampur, he said the police lodged the complaint only after the villagers gheraoed the police station. Khan also said the state government should clarify what happened to its claim that goonda raj has ended in the state.