Bulandshahr: Slain cop’s phone found in house of key accused
LUCKNOW : Nearly two months after a police officer was attacked and killed in mob violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandhshahr, his mobile phone was found on Saturday night at the home of the man who allegedly shot him dead.
The official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the residence of the man who allegedly shot him, officials said Sunday. The recovery comes nearly two months after the incident in Bulandshahr’s Siana area where on December 3 a mob fought pitched battles with police , apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village.
Inspector Subodh Kumar’s phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said.
Natt, who had allegedly shot the inspector during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is in jail.
“We had got information from sources that inspector Subodh Kumar’s mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natt’s house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place,” Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said. “The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt’s house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records,” he told reporters.
“Information was received through sources about the location of the mobile phone of Subodh Kumar Singh We’ve recovered the phone after a search operation at the location. The search for the pistol is still underway,” police officer Atul Srivastav said.
After Prashant Nutt was arrested last month, the Uttar Pradesh had said he confessed to shooting Subodh Kumar Singh. He and two other men who had snatched the officer’s revolver were identified from a cellphone video. Another man, Kalua, who was with Prashant Nutt and is accused of attacking the inspector with an axe, chopping off a couple of his fingers and then inflicting a head wound, was arrested on January 1.
Thirty people were arrested by the police after the Uttar Pradesh government was criticised for its handling of the investigation into the mob violence and the killing. Yogesh Raj, a Bajrang Dal leader and the main accused in the December mob violence, was arrested on January 2.
Violence broke out in the Uttar Pradesh town on December 3 over alleged cow slaughter. Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was chased, cornered in a field and shot dead by the mob of 400. A young man too was killed in the mob violence. Three people who were arrested for the alleged cattle slaughter were charged under the stringent National Security Act.(With Agency Inputs ).
