Piyush.Rai

Meerut:

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was allegedly attacked with an axe and stones by a mob before being shot during the Bulandhshar violence over alleged cow slaughter earlier this month, according to Bulandshahr SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary. The mob also tried to set on fire the car carrying a critically injured police officer to hospital. It was main accused Prashant Nutt who snatched the pistol of Singh, the Sayna SHO, and shot him dead, police claim.

Nutt and four others identified by cops as the ones responsible for killing the inspector were arrested in past few days. None of the five had been named in the original FIR filed after the violence. The sixth person, Kalua, who allegedly first attacked the officer with an axe is still absconding.

According to police, when SHO Singh was trying to pacify the crowd near Chingrawati police station, Kalua hit him with the axe. “A group of men was cutting trees to obstruct traffic. When the SHO tried to stop them, one of them, later identified as Kalua, attacked him with his axe… He attacked the inspector repeatedly before unleashing a severe blow on his head,” Chaudhary said.

“A critically injured Singh ran to save himself from stonepelting. The relentless attack from the mob forced him to open fire which hit one of the protesters, Sumit, who also died later,” said an SIT member privy to the investigation.

This enraged the protesters further and Prashant Nutt and others tried to overpower Singh and snatched his personal pistol. Nutt then allegedly shot Singh and fled the spot. A .32 bore bullet was recovered from bodies of both SHO Singh and protester Sumit, which proves that the two had been shot with the bullet of same calibre, the SIT member adds.

‘All accused to be booked under NSA’

The five accused arrested for allegedly killing SHO Subodh Kumar Singh and six others nabbed for cow slaughter that led to violence on December 3, would be booked under National Security Act, Bulandshahr SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary said on Friday.

Meanwhile, a day after Bulandshahr Police claimed to have arrested Prashant Nutt, the prime suspect in the killing of inspector Singh, his family on Friday said that he had surrendered in Greater Noida on December 25. “Like all other youths from the village, my brother had gone hiding and was living at his in-laws’ place in Kasna (Greater Noida). He was not arrested but surrendered before police on December 25,” Moolchand, Natt’s elder brother said.

Police claim that they arrested Nutt on Thursday (December 27). He was produced before a Bulandshahr court on Friday after which he was sent in 14 days’ judicial remand. The family also claimed that Nutt didn’t shoot inspector Singh and was being framed in the case as police have failed to work out the conspiracy behind the entire incident. “We have video clips, statements of eye witnesses and other accused who were present at the spot. Nutt can been seen shooting the inspector. He has also confessed of his role,” Bulandshahr SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary said. Nutt was not in the list of 27 accused named in the FIR for the violence. TNN