All the roads leading to Kapsad village, a part of the Sardhana Assembly constituency, were blocked by the police and RAF, on Saturday, as tensions rose in the village over the killing of a Dalit woman and the abduction of her 20-year-old daughter. The girl has now been recovered and the main accused Paras Singh Som, has been arrested. Photo: Nadim Ahmad

Ground Report: Why were roads to UP's Kapsad village blocked after Dalit murder, abduction?

UP police nabbed Paras Singh Som, who had killed a Dalit woman and abducted her daughter; the brazen crime in Kapsad village raises questions over law and order

Lalit Rai
11 Jan 2026 10:32 AM IST (Updated:2026-01-11 08:04:44)

An upper-caste youth accused of murdering a Dalit woman and abducting her daughter in Kapsad village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district on Thursday (January 8) was apprehended at a hotel in Haridwar on Saturday evening.

The 20-year-old kidnapped daughter has also been safely recovered. The accused, Paras Singh Som, was being brought to Meerut for questioning. The shocking incident of the brazen killing of a Dalit woman and the abduction of her daughter, while they were on their way to the fields raised questions about the Yogi Adityanath government's claim that law and order prevails in the state.

Sources told the media that Paras’s associate and co-accused, Sunil Singh Som, who was arrested earlier, disclosed his location to the police.

“They initially took the girl to Gurgaon but later moved to Haridwar for reasons yet unknown,” said an officer involved in the investigation. Both Paras and Sunil are members of the Rajput community.

Two other accused in the case are absconding.

Entry to Kapsad blocked

On Saturday (January 10), The Federal Desh team attempted to visit Kapsad village, a part of the Sardhana Assembly constituency, to find out what the local residents had to say. However, all the routes leading to Kapsad were cordoned off by the police and the RAF. From Saturday, entry has been strictly restricted to residents of the village.

Also read: Yogi govt faces backlash as SC woman killed, daughter abducted in Meerut

When our team from Delhi reached Aterna, situated along the Ganges Canal, we were stopped from proceeding to Kapsad. The police denied us permission to travel to the village, which was located three kilometres from Aterna.

At Aterna, the Superintendent of Police (Rural) Abhijeet Kumar refused to discuss the Kapsad case and provide any information he had about the kidnapped girl on camera. However, he informally told us that the matter is "sensitive" and the District Magistrate (DM) and SSP (SSP) could comment on the issue.

Protestors complain

On one side of the Aterna Bridge across the Ganges Canal, stood the police, while on the other, workers from several political parties gathered, chanting slogans.

Talking to The Federal Desh, supporters of the Dalit rights organisation, Bhim Sena and Kisan Morcha workers, repeatedly maintained that if Yogi Adityanath's police had been as vigilant the Dalit woman would not have been murdered and her daughter would not have been abducted. They felt that police was not nabbing the accused (this was before the arrests) since they belonged to a powerful caste.

The protestors wanted to share the Dalit family's grief but were prevented by the police from entering Kapsad village.

Vipin Malik, general secretary of the Rashtriya Kisan Morcha, said that the seriousness of the matter can be understood by the fact that officials from the Meerut district and division are visiting Kapsad not once but multiple times.

Where is bulldozer justice now?

When we were not allowed to proceed beyond Aterna bridge, The Federal Desh team tried to reach Kapsad via Madarpur and Kunjalvan, but were unsuccessful. The residents of Kunjalvan village said that they had not seen such a large police deployment in their area before.

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But the villagers, especially the Dalit community, were angry over the Kapsad incident and wanted to know why bulldozers were not used on the house of the accused. Will bulldozers only be used on the houses of Dalits, backward classes and minorities? they asked bitterly.

After leaving Kunjalvan, we met Atul Pradhan, the Samajwadi Party MLA from Sardhana, in Madarpur village. He described the actions of a former BJP MLA of Sardhana (without directly naming Sangeet Som) as incomprehensible, saying, "His behaviour after the Kapsad incident is beyond comprehension. If you question BJP leaders in Yogi Adityanath's government, they start talking about the Samajwadi Party. After all, how long will they continue to curse the Samajwadi Party? The reality is that the Kapsad incident could have been prevented. This is clearly a sign of negligence on the part of both the government and the administration."

The killing and abduction

In his complaint, Mandeep Kumar, the son of the deceased woman, Sunita, stated that on Thursday morning, 25-year-old Paras, along with Sunil Singh and two unidentified accomplices, intercepted the mother-daughter duo as they were heading to their sugarcane field.

They grabbed Sunita's daughter's hand, and attempted to abduct her. When Sunita tried to stop them from kidnapping her, the accused attacked her with an axe and fled with the girl. Some girls passing by informed the villagers about the woman lying in the field. The villagers admitted Sunita to the hospital.

However, she died two days later, and since then, the issue has become increasingly political.

(This article first appeared in The Federal Desh)

Uttar PradeshAbductionYogi Adityanath govt in UPDalit atrocities

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