The weapon has been recovered from the accused Kalua and he has admitted to his crime, said the police
Lucknow: Police have arrested one of the “prime accused” in the Bulandshahr case, in which inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and 22-year-old youth Sumit Singh were killed during mob violence over alleged cow slaughter.
Kalua, alias Rajeev Kumar, was arrested on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1. Kumar, who is believed to have attacked Subodh with an axe, was allegedly the first person to attack the inspector, police said, adding that the weapon had been recovered from Kalua’s possession.
“The accused, Kalua alias Rajeev, was arrested at 12.40 am last night (Tuesday). He was arrested from Saidpur turn in the district after we received local intelligence inputs about his presence there,” said Pravin Ranjan Singh, SP Bulandshahr.
“During investigation, it has come to light that he had attacked inspector Subodh with an axe which he had been using to cut a tree so that the road could be blocked. Thus, a prime accused has now been caught. Efforts to nab the others are being made,” Singh added.
The incident took place on the afternoon of 3 December, when locals from Syana area in Bulandshahr had assembled near Chingrawati police chowki after suspected cattle carcass was found in Mahav village.
Expressing anger at the alleged cow slaughter, locals had protested and demanded action against the culprits. The protests took a violent turn after stones were pelted and gunshots fired. The police chowki and vehicles were set ablaze. In the ensuing melee, the inspector and the student were killed, having sustained fatal gunshot injuries.
‘Axe injured cop on arm, head’
The police said during questioning, Kalua had admitted to the crime and said that he was cutting a tree on 3 December so that the road next to Chingrawathi chowki in Bulandshahr could be blocked.
“When inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was also the head of Syana police station, asked him not to do so, the mob which had gathered grew angry. The accused told us that on being urged by the mob, he attacked the inspector with the axe due to which Subodh received severe injuries on his arm and head,” said Raghavendra Kumar Mishra, circle officer (DSP rank), Syana.
Last week, Prashant Natt, another prime accused who had allegedly shot the inspector near his forehead, was arrested.
Following his arrest, the police had claimed to have reconstructed the sequence of events leading to Singh’s murder.
“As per our investigation in the case so far, Subodh was attacked with stones and he was hit on the head with a kulhadi (axe). A large group of men had surrounded him but he did not lose courage and used his service weapon to fire shots in the air,” Mishra said.
Police claim that it was probably one of the shots fired by the inspector in the air which had hit the student Sumit.
“As he (Subodh) tried to move away from the crowd with a gun in his hand, a group of men held him from the back and snatched his gun. Natt then used the inspector’s service revolver to fire a shot at him. Subodh received a bullet injury near his forehead from the shot and succumbed to this injury,” said Mishra.
Also read: Bulandshahr cop ‘killer’ is also suspect in a Delhi murder