An axe-wielding shopkeeper hacked a couple to
death in northern India Thursday after they failed to pay a debt of 22 US
cents, police said.
The
middle-aged couple from the lowest Dalit caste in Uttar Pradesh state were on
their way to work early Thursday when the grocery store owner asked them to pay
their 15-rupee (22-cent) debt.
“The
shopkeeper demanded money but they pleaded to be able to pay it later. He
became enraged and attacked them with an axe,” Arun Kumar, the investigating
officer in Mainpuri district, told AFP.
The
officer said the couple had bought goods from the shop last week with a promise
to pay the 60-year-old owner within a few days.
“Their refusal to pay made him angry and he
killed them,” Kumar said.
The
owner was arrested soon after the incident and the murder weapon recovered, the
officer said.
Hundreds
of people are murdered in India each year over sudden provocations, often
trivialities.
In
2014, almost 15 percent of the murders in New Delhi were unmotivated, according
to police, and were mostly committed by non-criminals acting in a fit of rage.
-AFP
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