The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday said it had arrested another person accused in the murder of officer Subodh Kumar Singh last month during mob violence in Bulandshahr.
The man, identified as Kalua alias Rajeev, is accused of wielding an axe on the police officer before he was shot dead with his service pistol allegedly by another accused Prashant Natt .
Kalua was nabbed from a bus station late on Monday. An axe, allegedly used in the crime, was also recovered from him, said a senior police official.
“During questioning it has come to light that he was the one who attacked inspector Subodh Kumar Singh with an axe after which the incident [murderous attack on the officer] took place,” said Atul Srivastava, SP City.
Police said that after his arrest, Natt had informed them that Mr. Singh had first been hit with a sharp axe and assaulted with stones and sticks before he was shot.
The mob also tried to burn the officer, police said.
SSP Bulandshahr Prabhakar Chaudhary said it was after Kalua attacked the officer with an axe on his head that the mob had set upon him.
Mr. Srivastava said that Kalua attacked the officer when he was trying to prevent the accused from cutting a tree with his axe to create a blockade on the road.
While police are still looking for others accused in the murder case, some of the main accused in instigating the violence, Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj and the BJP youth wing’s Shikhar Agarwal are still absconding even though the police has issued notices for seizing their property if they don’t surrender. About 30 persons have been arrested so far. Police had named 27 persons in the FIR while more than 70 were unnamed.
“There is regular progress in the case,” said Mr. Srivastava.
Mr. Singh was shot dead when a mob went on a violent rampage in Bulandshahr’s Syana area on December 3 after right-wing groups alleged that some cows had been slaughtered and brought carcasses to the police outpost in a tractor trolley.
He was shot near his left eyebrow by a .32 bore weapon, police had earlier said on the basis of the autopsy report.
Mr. Singh had overseen the investigation into the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri as the investigating officer probing the case from September 28, 2015, to November 9, 2015.
