UP captor killed, his wife lynched

Farrukhabad (UP), Jan.

31: The hostage crisis here ended early Friday after 23 children held captive for eight hours were rescued by police and the captor shot dead, while his wife was lynched by angry villagers

Eight policemen and a local resident were hurt when Subhash Batham,

40, opened fire at them during the siege in Kasaria village, police said.

“The accused had invited the children for his daughter’s birthday party and held them hostage,” director-general of police O.P. Singh said.

“It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours,” the Uttar Pradesh DGP said.

The crisis continued past midnight. Police said Batham, who was a murder accused and appeared mentally unstable, initially released a six-monthold girl by handing her over to a neighbour from a balcony.

They said Batham, who was out on bail, had demanded the withdrawal of a murder case against him. “The accused was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely,” additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference at 1.20 am on Friday.

Batham’s wife died in hospital late on Thursday night. She had tried to escape from the spot, but was caught by angry parents who thrashed her and pelted stones at her, Kanpur Inspector General Mohit Agarwal said.

She suffered a head injury in the attack, but the exact cause of death would be known after post-mortem, he said.

The children were confined to the basement of the house. Agarwal said Batham wanted to talk to the local MLA, but refused to speak to him when he arrived, Agarwal said.

Police recovered a country-made gun, a rifle, about two dozen cartridges and two dozen country-made bombs.

The IG said this indicated that he could have kept the children hostage for days, and perhaps planned to blow up the house. When Batham demanded the withdrawal of the murder case against him, police assured him that they would consider it. They also talked about offering a government house to him.

While this conversation was going on, a police team entered the house by breaking open the back door. Batham fired two bullets to scare them away. “We thought he had fired at the children and stopped midway,” Agarwal said.