Bulandshahr violence case: Army hands over soldier to UP police

The soldier, identified as Jeetendra Malik alias Jeetu Fauji,  belonged to a unit of the Rashtriya Rifles based in Kashmir.

Jeetu Fauji was wanted in the case of the murder of police officer Subodh Kumar Singh during mob violence over cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr.

A senior police officer involved in the investigation has said the soldier, a local resident, has been seen in video footage firing a gun.

After the surfacing of this fact, a police team from UP, investigating the case, had contacted the army and sought custody of Jeetu Fauji.

He had left his home soon after the killing of the police inspector.

Prime accused in the Bulandshahr violence case Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj was arrested on Thursday, reports said. The violence had claimed two lives.

Raj, in a video released earlier had said that he was not involved in the stone-pelting and firing incident over cow slaughter that took place at Bulandshahr’s Chingrawati police chowki. The riots led to the death of a civilian Sumit and a police inspector Subodh Kumar.

Earlier, family of inspector Subodh Kumar met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

Amid political furore, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on  December ordered a thorough probe and directions were issued for strict action against those involved in the alleged cow slaughter.

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who had initially probed the 2015 lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, and 20-year-old Sumit Kumar died of gunshot injuries in the attack.

Uttar Pradesh police chief O P Singh suggested there was conspiracy behind the violence. With lakhs of people collected for a 'Tabligi Ijtema', a congregation of Muslims, 40 km from Mahaw village where the cattle carcasses were found, police also succeeded in containing what could have been a communal riot, he had said.

Many people kept away from their homes, fearing arrest in connection with the two FIRs registered by police — one over the alleged cow slaughter and the other for the violence that followed.

The wife and sister-in-law of Rajkumar Chaudhary, a former Mahaw village head and one of the 27 named accused in the FIR, alleged vandalism and assault by the police. The carcasses were found on his fields and he and some others from the village are absconding.

The villagers claimed people that the Bajrang Dal came to the spot from outside and insisted on taking the carcasses to the police post. But the police visited their village, they said.

Two of the accused in the case are minors, aged 11 and 12, while one, Sarfuddin, is claimed to have been wrongly named in the FIR. The local people claim another man, Sudaif Chaudhary, said to be a resident of the village, doesn't exist.