Cop, youth killed with same bore weapon: Initial findings
Slain inspector’s wife tells chief minister that her husband used to get threat calls; main accused not nabbed yet
LUCKNOW/MEERUT: Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and local youth Sumit Kumar were shot dead with same bore (.32) pistol or pistols, suggest the initial findings of the probe by senior police officials in the Bulandshahr violence.
The police were, however, unable to nab the key accused in the violence, Yogesh Raj (a Bajrang Dal leader), even after 72 hours of the violence.
The SSP office of Bulandshahar said six teams (of 10-12 cops each) have been formed to arrest all the accused named in the FIR for the Monday violence. “Teams are raiding every possible hideout to arrest the accused,” the SSP office said.
Meanwhile, the slain inspector’s wife Rajni met chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on Thursday and told him that her husband, who was handling cow slaughter complaints, used to get threat calls.
She was accompanied by her two sons during the meeting.
Additional director general (ADG), Intelligence, SB Shiroadkar, who was asked by the state government to submit the spot findings about Bulandshahr violence within 48 hours, was yet to
submit his report.
Also probing the violence, the SIT team led by inspector general (IG) of Meerut range, Ram Kumar, and a team of special task force visited the spot to investigate the matter in past
two days but haven’t submitted their reports. But a senior police officer at state police headquarters in Lucknow said the initial findings of the three probing teams point out that the weapon (weapons) used in the murders of the inspector and the youth were of .32 bore.
“Who killed the two and under what circumstances is still unclear,” the officer, who did not want to be named, said.
He said the slain inspector’s private licensed pistol, which he was carrying at the time of the violence, was of the same bore and was missing since then.
The officer said the pistol was allegedly looted by the unruly mob after killing him during the violence.
He, however, added that it is very early to say whether the inspector’s pistol was used in the killings. This would be ascertained only after ballistic examination of the missing pistol, he added.
He said .32 bore weapons are non-prohibited and are available for common license holders, so it is possible that somebody from the mob may have been carrying the same bore pistol and used it to shoot the inspector and the youth.
He said the bullets recovered from the two bodies have been sent for forensic examination but the ballistic examination of the pistol could not be done as it was taken away by the assailants present among the mob.
Moreover, the initial investigations suggest unpreparedness of local police officials in handling the violent mob despite being aware about recovery of cow carcasses around four hours before the violence on Monday.
The mob turned violent at around 1 pm but by then the local police was not able to assess the situation.
Inspector general (crime) S K Bhagat also told reporters in Lucknow that it appears that the police officer and the youth had died of injuries caused by .32 mm bullets, but whether those were fired from the same weapon would be known only after the report from the forensic lab was received.
Bhagat also confirmed that the carcasses recovered from Mahav village were nearly two days old during initial examination.
This suggested that the cows were slaughtered on the intervening night of December 1 and 2 and the carcasses were recovered on the morning of December 3.
The spot report also mentioned that the cow slaughter happened under the Syana police station area but still people behind it was unclear.
The ADG intelligence had on Tuesday had visited the two mango orchards and a sugar cane field where cow dung and blood stains were found.
The spot findings clearly suggested that the cows were slaughtered in the orchards and the field but it was not clear how carcasses reached near the populated area of Mahav village.