UP police have finally nabbed the person, who allegedly shot dead inspector Subodh Kumar Singh who was trying to calm down the cow vigilantes in the area.?
The accused has been identified as Prashant Nath was arrested from the Bulandshahr-Noida border on Thursday afternoon.
According to police, Nath who works as a taxi driver in Delhi has admitted that he shot dead the officer.
ANI
The 30-year-old was visiting his home in Chingrawathi village, when the violence erupted following the recovery of cow carcasses.
He was angered over the death of Sumit, a local youth in police shooting during the violence.
Nat who was part of the mob which chased the officer allegedly snatched Inspector Singh's service revolver and shot him dead.
PTI
Nat's involvement in the crime however largely went unnoticed and he was not even named in the FIR which had 27 names.
After the murder, Nat who had a history of petty crimes managed to flee the village with his family.
The investigators who had initially arrested an army personal named Jitender Malik aka Jeetu Fauji for the murder had later retracted the claim.
The cops zeroed in on Nat based on surveillance video footages and eyewitness statements.
NDTV reported that another local youth, identified as Johnny who was with Nat during the violence has also been arrested. He too was not named in the FIR.
Describing the sequence of events, Bulandshahr additional police superintendent (crime) Shiv Ram Yadav told Hindustan Times that Sumit, the local youth who was killed in police firing was part of the mob which pelted stones at the cops.?
PTI
Following his death, the mob became violent and turned against the police, forcing them to flee, leaving Inspector Singh alone.
According to ANI, so far, 25 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence. However, the main accused, Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj who had made the first police complaint about some local Muslim youths slaughtering a cow is still on the run.
PTI
In his complaint Yogesh had claimed that he saw them slaughtering the cow and demanded their arrest. But, Yogesh who went into hiding following the violence, in a video statement changed the narrative and claimed that he went to the spot after being informed about cow slaughter.
Meanwhile, the UP Police have admitted that all the four men who were initially arrested on charges of cow slaughter were innocent. The four men,Sarfuddin, Sajid, Asif and Nanhe were arrested by police after Yogesh named them in his complaint, accusing them of slaughtering the cow.