Another mob attack on UP police leaves 3 cops injured
LUCKNOW: In another instance of mob violence against the police in Uttar Pradesh, three policemen and an elderly woman were injured on Sunday as protests against the murder of a five-yearold girl, allegedly by a minor in Lucknow’s Mahanagar area, turned violent.
This is the third incident of police being attacked in the state this month. On December 3, inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed in mob violence triggered by the recovery of several cow carcasses in Bulandshahr district, while on Saturday, constable Suresh Kumar Vats was killed and several others were injured as a protest by Nishad Party workers turned violent in Ghazipur, barely 15 kilometres from the venue of a rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the same day.
Police said the girl, the daughter of a ragpicker-cum-scrap dealer, was murdered Friday and her body was found stuffed in a sack and dumped in a drain in the Akbarnagar slums of Mahanagar area on Sunday morning.
A case was registered and the 14-year-old boy, his father and elder brother were taken into custody.
The girl’s family alleged that she was raped but post-mortem did not find any external injury on her private parts. As per the report, death was caused ‘due to throttling’ and laceration marks were visible on the throat. Vaginal swab is sent for testing to confirm whether she was sexually assaulted, district police spokesman Anil Kumar Singh said.
Protesting the incident, the girl’s family, along with other slum dwellers, blocked the Faizabad Road. The mob turned violent when police tried to disperse it. The protestors resorted to stonepelting, injuring three police officers and an elderly woman after which the police carried out a baton charge.
Police teams from at least 15 stations were called to the spot, an officer said. The road remained blocked for three hours and traffic was diverted.
Circle officer, Mahanagar, Santosh Singh said the girl was last seen playing outside her house in Mahanagar area at around 2pm Friday and had been missing since.
He said the girl’s family suspected the teenager’s involvement in her disappearance as he, too, was missing after the incident. He said the families of the girl and the boy stayed barely at a distance of 20 metres.
Singh said the boy, along with his father and elder brother, turned himself in late on Saturday and confessed. “As per the teenager’s statement, he strangled the girl and slit her throat in fit of rage when she hit him with a stick while playing near her house...,” he added.
An officer added that initial probe suggested the boy was addicted to drinking cough syrups and the possibility of rape could not be ruled out as of now.