New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh police arrested a second person believed to be responsible for inspector Subodh Kumar Singh’s killing in Bulandshahr on December 3.
According to NDTV, the man – identified as Kalua – had attacked the policeman with an axe, cut off his fingers and wounded him on the head.
The post-mortem report and have painted a gruesome picture of the events leading to Singh’s death.
According to the police FIR, Singh was attacked with stones, sticks and an axe before being shot dead.
Singh was killed in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, while trying to stop an angry and violent mob protesting against alleged cow slaughter in the area. The mob turned on the police team and targeted Singh, according to the FIR.
Also read: Bulandshahr Cop Killing: Police Details Violence; BJP Sticks to ‘Accident’ Theory
One of his fingers had been chopped off and he was hit on his head. When he tried to escape, police said, Singh was dragged through fields and hit with sticks while his fellow officers tried to rescue him. When he was finally put in a jeep and taken towards a hospital, the mob pelted the vehicle with stones and even tried to set it on fire.
The police with Singh had to stop and disperse, and the inspector was shot at point-blank range. According to the post-mortem report, the bullet hit him above his eyebrow and he had several fractures on his arms and legs. Prashant Nutt, who allegedly pulled the trigger, was arrested on December 28.
NDTV has reported that Nutt, Kalua and a third man, Johnny (who had snatched Singh’s revolver) were identified from a cellphone video. Johnny has not yet been arrested.
Two cases were filed after the December 3 violence – on one cow slaughter and one on the policeman’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. He finally talking about the policeman only a day later, and even then called his death an ‘accident’.