Court issues NBWs against 27 accused

MEERUT: The court of the Bulandshahr chief judicial magistrate Avdhesh Pandey has issued nonbailable warrants (NBW) against 27 people named in connection with the December 3 violence in which police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a local man, 21-year-old Sumit Kumar, were killed in the western district of Uttar Pradesh .

Bajrang Dal district convenor Yogesh Raj, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Syana youth wing city president Shikhar Agarwal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist Upendra Raghav and Rajkumar, former head of the Mahav village, are among the accused in the first information report.

The NBWs have been granted to ensure the suspects are either arrested or they surrender in court, the police said.

The suspects have been charged under the IPC with unlawful assembly, rioting, being armed with deadly weapons, attempt to murder and murder, among others.

The investigating officer, circle officer Syana Raghvendra Mishra, told the court the accused were absconding, and trying to vitiate communal harmony

and influence evidence by releasing videos.

Owing to the sensitivity of the case, NBWs were required to ensure their arrest, the investigating officer said. Six police teams have been formed to arrest the suspects and a special investigation team (SIT) is trying to identify the troublemakers through video clips of the violence, which was triggered by the alleged sighting of cow carcasses. Police have so far arrested some people, including an army jawan Jeetendra Malik aka Jeetu Fauji.

The Bulandshahr SSP’s office confirmed that NBWs had been issued against the suspects and proceedings for confiscating their property would begin if they did not surrender in court or present themselves for arrest.