Farrukhabad hostage episode: Wife of captor succumbs, children rescued

The woman, who was lynched by angry locals after the police killed the accused and rescued the children, was rushed to a hospital in critical condition where she succumbed to her injuries.

'The woman has succumbed to injuries. We are waiting for the post-mortem report to ascertain the reason behind her death,' IG Kanpur Mohit Agarwal told reporters.

The accused Subhash Batham was shot dead by the police on Thursday night after an eight-hour standoff at a village in Farrukhabad.

Around 25 children, under 10 years age, had been taken into hostage by the 'psycho' criminal in his house at Kasaria village under Mohammadabad police station area on Thursday.

However, the criminal had released a six-month-old child after she fell sick at around 2300 hrs.

A letter was also given by the accused along with the released child addressed to the District Magistrate alleging that the gram Pradhan was not allotting him Pradhanmantri Awas and toilet project due to which his ailing mother and other family members were facing a problem.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held an emergency meeting in Lucknow late in the night and directed the police to rescue the children unharmed at any cost.

Batham had taken the children hostage when they had come to celebrate his daughter's first birthday.

The children had gone to this house at around 1400 hrs for the celebration but he locked them up in a room.

Batham, a murder convict, was out on bail but was again sent back to the jail in a theft case.

Eye witnesses said when some local people tried to break open the door, he started firing from inside in which one person and two policemen were injured. Batham even hurled a low-intensity bomb from the window. He allegedly shouted that he had been framed in a criminal case.

However, the accused asked people to talk to him but when anyone came near him he opened fire. Even his demand to call local BJP MLA Nagendra Singh was also met, but it failed to pacify Batham.

"The accused was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference, at around 0200 hours.

"The accused had invited the children for the birthday party of his daughter and held them hostage. It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours," Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh said, adding that in the entire operation they had tried to "engage" the accused and were successful.

The UP government has announced an award of Rs 10 lakh to the police team for their brave act, the DGP announced.

Appreciating the patience of the policemen, the DGP announced at around 0200 hrs that the "operation masum" was completed at 0130 hrs with rescue of all the 23 children.

Eyewitnesses said a restive crowd gathered outside the house where the children were kept with some women wailing and praying for their safe release.

The crowd broke open the door of the house to rescue the children, they said.

As the accused opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot. In the exchange of fire, the captor's wife was injured, but none of the children suffered any injury.