New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday made an arrest in connection with the murder of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh amidst mob violence in Bulandshahr in early December.
With the arrest of Prashant Natt – who police say shot and killed Singh during clashes between Hindutva activists and the state police on December 3 – the total number of accused held in the case has gone up to 29. A local youth, Sumit Kumar, was also killed in the incident.
The mob had been protesting against an alleged incident of cow slaughter in Bulandshahr, a town in the western Uttar Pradesh’s sugarcane belt.
According to an Indian Express report, the state police had earlier named Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj as the prime suspect in the killing of inspector Singh. Raj, the police said, is still an accused in the case. “He has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court,” an officer said. “If he does not surrender soon requisite action will be taken against him.”
Thirty-year-old Natt – who was not named in the FIR – was, on the other hand, taken into custody after he was spotted in videos of the incident. His involvement was also corroborated with testimonies of other accused and technical evidence, the English daily reported.
Bulandshahr SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary told Indian Express that Natt and other protestors – identified as Rahul, David and Johnny – cornered the inspector “in the fields and attacked him with stones.” When Singh fired in self-defence, “the bullet hit Sumit… By this time, Subodh was grievously injured and had little energy left to defend himself.”
Also read: Timeline: How the Bulandshahr Violence Unfolded
Natt then took the inspector’s service revolver and shot him in the head.
“During interrogation, he has confessed to his involvement in the violence and also admitted that he had shot the bullet which killed the inspector,” Atul Kumar Srivastava, additional superintendent of police of Bulandshahr city, told PTI.
Policeman inspects a site in Bulandshahr on December 3, 2018, after a near riot-like situation broke out. Credit: PTI
“We are interrogating him further to elicit other details and expect other information to emerge during the probe. Based on that information, we will move ahead with the probe in the case,” Srivastava added.
A police officer said that several other accused mentioned Natt’s name during interrogation. Natt was finally arrested from the Noida-Bulandshahr border after a tip-off.
Earlier arrests
Five were earlier arrested on December 18 for their alleged roles in the mob violence and the cow-slaughtering cases.
Three of them – Nadeem, Raees and Kaala – were arrested for their alleged involvement in the cow-slaughtering case, while two accused were nabbed by the state special task force for the subsequent violence after cow carcasses were found in a field.
The trio was not named in the initial FIR, which had seven accused, including two minors, but their names emerged in the case during probe.
An FIR against 27 named people and 50-60 unidentified people was registered at the Siyana police station for the violence at the Chingrawathi police post after cattle carcasses were found strewn outside nearby Mahaw village.
‘Cow slaughter’ prioritised over cop’s killing
During the early phase of the investigation of the mob violence, the state police had come under fire for shifting the focus to probing allegations of cow slaughter.
The Wire earlier reported that the police believed that it was the allegation of cow slaughter that led to the violence and the killing of Singh, and therefore needed to be investigated first.
On the day following the violence and the inspector’s killing, UP chief minister Adityanath had also ordered a probe into the alleged cow slaughter, choosing to ignore the murder of Singh. “Tough action needs to be taken against those who carried out cow slaughter,” a press release said, but did not say anything about Singh’s death.