Indian couple axed to death over 20c debt

Police in India say they have arrested a shopkeeper for axing to death a couple from a lower caste for not promptly paying a debt of 15 rupees (20c) for groceries.

District magistrate Pramod Chandra Gupta said the upper caste shopkeeper killed the couple in a rage when they asked for more time to pay for the groceries they bought from his shop in Mainpuri, a town in Uttar Pradesh state.

The couple were construction workers and left behind five children, Mr Gupta said.

Increase in attacks

Attacks against Muslims and Dalits have risen since prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party came to power two years ago.

Four low-caste Dalit community men were beaten by Hindu hardliners while trying to skin a dead cow in western India earlier this week.

PA