Bulandshahr inspector killing was an ‘accident’, says Yogi

The killing of a police inspector during violent clashes in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr earlier this week was an accident and not a case of mob lynching, state chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday as state police focused their search on a soldier who allegedly fired the shot that killed the senior officer.

Adityanath’s comment came in Delhi at an event hosted by a Hindi newspaper, a day after he ordered strict action against cow slaughter, unlawful trade in cattle and illegal slaughterhouses, saying district magistrates and other senior police officials would be held personally responsible for any lapse.

Two senior police officers – Meerut inspector general Ram Singh and director general of police OP Singh – have said they see a “conspiracy” behind the incident, with the former saying that solving the case of alleged cow slaughter, which triggered the clashes, was more important.

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a 21-year-old man, Sumit Kumar, were killed on Monday by a rampaging mob that torched vehicles and clashes with security forces for three hours over allegations of cow slaughter.

After scanning multiple videos of the clashes, police said they are searching for an army man, a local resident, who was identified in one of the clips and was pur-

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