Update: The police arrested Prashant Natt, a cab driver in Delhi, who they have suspect is the shooter who killed the inspector.
The Uttar Pradesh police, who are investigating the murder of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh during mob violence in Bulandshahr, now claim to have identified the real killer, weeks after saying that a Hindutva outfit leader was the prime suspect.
Reports say that the police identified Prashant Natt as the shooter after going through videos of the incident.
Economic Times reported UP Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar as saying, “Natt is a suspect in the killing of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, based on the video footage we have and based on oral testimonies of some other people... We have recreated the crime scene and narrowed down the people who went and killed the Inspector—Natt was part of that group. We have almost cracked the case of the inspector’s killing.”
Natt’s name was not part of the FIR that was filed in the incident. While the police had first said Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj was the prime suspect and later arrested army jawan Jeetu Fauji, they have now said Natt, a 30-year-old taxi driver in the Delhi-NCR area, is responsible for the killing.
Reports say Natt belongs to Bulandshahr’s Chingrawathi village.
However, a report in The Print said the police are yet to find out what Natt’s role in the mob violence was.
The Economic Times reported Anand Kumar as saying that Natt would “spill the beans” once he was arrested.
Prashant Kumar, ADG Meerut, also said that his role would be ascertained once he is arrested.
“Natt’s role has been found in the incident. The exact role of Natt and others in the incident and the murders is in the process of being ascertained. The picture will be clear only after their arrests,” Prashant Kumar told ThePrint.in.
ThePrint.in also reported that Natt was one of the people who had approached the court with a surrender plea.
The police had earlier detained Fauji, who is said to have been present in the mob and that his family had confirmed to the cops that he was there.
Major confusion has prevailed in the probes of two cases that had come into the limelight since the incident of mob violence at Bulandshahr’s Siyana village. Apart from inspector Singh, 20-year-old civilian Sumit Kumar was killed in the violence.
The police have said that the mob violence was triggered by the alleged slaughter of cows. In fact, the police had said that their priority was to find who killed the cows whose carcasses were found in a nearby field.
Bajrang Dal leader Raj had lodged an FIR accusing seven Muslim men of cow slaughter. The police had arrested four people who, they later admitted, were innocent.
Two of the seven were minor boys, who were also kept at the police station for a few hours before being released.
The police last week arrested three more people for the alleged cow slaughter.