Madhya Pradesh Man Accused Of Setting 3 Houses On Fire, Ransacking Temple

A man in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa district has been charged for allegedly setting three houses - two belonging to Muslim men and one Hindu family - on fire and vandalising a temple on the same day.

On January 5, the man Bunty Upadhyaya, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, attacked Shaukat Ali. He was arrested by the police and sent to jail.

When Bunty got out on bail on Thursday, he allegedly set three houses on fire, including Shaukat's. He also allegedly beat Shaukat's sister Kamroon Bi with a rubber pipe.

Later he burnt an auto and set the house of Chandrakanta on fire - all are residents of Kodiya Hanuman Mandir in Khandwa district.

However, the Muslim families alleged they were attacked because of their religious identity, as the accused had threatened them to leave the locality a day before the incident.

Baljeet Singh, an inspector at the Kotwali police station, said Deepak also known as Bunty has an extensive criminal record with 28 cases against him. Of them six crimes were registered in just two days.

"He had a fight with two families and he beat them up. Then in the night, the locked house of Shaukat Ali, an auto-rickshaw of Saleem Beg and the backyard of Chandrakanta were set on fire. He also vandalised a Shiv-Parvati temple in the locality in which a case has also been registered," he said.