Bulandshahr violence: Man who attacked inspector Subodh Kumar Singh with axe arrested

Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a man who allegedly attacked Bulandshahr cop Subodh Kumar Singh with an axe during the December 3 violence over alleged cow slaughter in the area, officials said on Tuesday. The accused, Kalua, was arrested from a bus stand on Monday night. With his arrest, the total number of accused held in the case went up to 30, a police officer said. According to police, Kalua has accepted his crime. He reportedly told investigators that during the violence that broke out on December 3, he was felling a tree to block a road. When inspector Subodh tried to stop him, he attacked the cop with an axe on his head.

On December 3, a mob of some 400 people rampaged through a village in Bulandshahr district apparently after cow carcasses were found in a jungle nearby. During the violence, police inspector Singh and a 20-year-old man died of gunshot wounds.

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Singh went for a search operation following specific inputs about stone pelting in the region and fell unconscious after a stone hit his head. While being rushed to the hospital, an angry mob again attacked his vehicle. While other policemen in the Jeep fled the spot, Singh was allegedly shot at a point-blank range above his left eye.

On December 27, police had arrested Prashant Nat, who allegedly shot the inspector dead after the axe attack. Five people were arrested on December 18 for their alleged roles in the mob violence and the cow slaughter case.

One of the main suspects among the 27 named in the FIR, local Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj, is still at large, while an Army jawan, Jitendra Malik, has been arrested and remanded in custody.

Earlier in December last year, the police had arrested the accused who allegedly shot Singh during the Bulandshahr violence. Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhakar Chaudhary said that the accused identified as Prashant Nutt has confessed to his crime during the interrogation.

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Besides Natt, the police have identified another accused - Johnny, who is also a native of Bulandshahr. The name of both Natt and Johny were not included in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged in early December, but were identified from the videos of the violence which emerged on social networking sites.