The Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh, has ordered criminal charges against officials found responsible for forging records to declare living people dead.

The government ordered an inquiry after more than a dozen people who have been officially declared dead took part in a demonstration in the state capital, Lucknow.

They said that thousands of people have been wrongly declared dead by cheating relatives who want to inherit their property.

The Chief Minister has ordered the immediate suspension of several local officials who are alleged to have helped relatives to forge revenue records.