One held for woman’s death during police raid

LUCKNOW : A day after a 50-year-old woman died of a bullet injury during a police raid in Islamnagar village of Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district, police on Monday arrested a man in connection with the incident.

“We have arrested one Jitendra Yadav who extorts money from those involved in cow slaughter. Also, we have recovered a country made pistol of 0.315 bore from his possession. A shell of a fired cartridge was also found in the pistol,” superintendent of police (SP), Siddharthnagar, Yashvir Singh said. He said, “It is likely that the woman died from the bullet fired by Yadav.” The SP further said the family members of the deceased women also found the bullet of the same bore from the site of incident.

Earlier, the family of the deceased woman had alleged that she was shot by the police during the raid on Saturday night. The SP said police personnel did not open any firing and that the fact will be further looked into during probe.

The incident took place around 10.30pm on Saturday when the local police along with a special operations group went to Islamnagar village in the district to arrest the woman’s son Abdul Rehman, a suspect in a cow slaughter case. The situation, however, worsened when the suspect’s mother, Roshni, started opposing the arrest of her son. Soon, other villagers too joined her and attacked the police party. They also opened fire, forcing the police to resort to retaliatory firing.

On Monday, the SP said the raid was headed by station house officer (SHO), Siddharthnagar police station, Tehsildar Singh. “The raid was made on an intelligence inputs of cow slaughter in Islamnagar village at around 10:20pm. Seven history sheeters involved in cow slaughter live in the village. Seven cases of cow slaughter against 16 accused of the area have been lodged in the past,” SP Yashvir Singh said.

While highlighting the sequence of the incident, a press statement issued by the police on Monday said after some villagers registered their protest against the raid, the police team began to return from the village. It was when Jitendra Yadav opened fire towards the crowd and the bullet hit Roshni.

While two first information reports (FIRs) have been lodged in connection with the incident, the police have also booked some unknown villagers on charges of rioting and obstructing government officials from discharging their duty. The SP said the situation in the village was peaceful and a police picket had been set up there to ensure law and order.

The raid was made on an intelligence inputs of cow slaughter in Islamnagar village at around 10:20pm. YASHVIR SINGH, SP, Siddharthnagar