A woman was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district when a police team had gone to a village to inspect reports of cow slaughter. While the family of the woman Roshni alleged that she was shot dead by the police after she refused to hand over her son to the police during the raid, police said she was shot by a local man who was trying to disperse a crowd which had gathered at the spot to thwart the police operation.
One person, identified as Jitendra Yadav, was arrested on charges of firing at the woman with a 315 bore country-made pistol, said the police on Monday.
On May 14, a police team reached village Kodragrant Tola Islamnagar on reports of cow slaughter.
On May 9, a case had been lodged for cow slaughter and among the four arrested, two belonged to Islamnagar and the other two were from a neighbouring village, said the police. Seven history-sheeters accused of cow slaughter live in Islamnagar, said the police.
On May 14, when the police force reached the village at 10.20 p.m., local men and women started protesting against the search operation and questioning of one person by the police, said Yeah Veer Singh, Superintendent of Police, Siddharthnagar.
The locals then got into a scuffle with the police and due to the chaos, the police force had to retreat, said the SP.
After this, a person identified as Jitendra Yadav, who often tried to illegally extort money from those involved in cow slaughter, fired at the crowd with a country-made pistol, said police. The bullet hit Roshni.
A 315 bore pistol was recovered from him, said the police, adding that the bullet handed over to them by the victim’s family was also from a 315 bore weapon.
Son’s claim
Earlier, Abdul Rehman, Roshni’s son, said he was sleeping at home on Saturday night when the police came there and tried to pick him up without any investigation or questioning. “They fired. My mother was hit by a bullet,” he told reporters outside a local hospital where his mother was declared dead.
Mr. Rehman had arrived from Mumbai on May 9 to attend his sister’s marriage scheduled for May 22.
Atiqur Rehman, his brother, said their mother had tried to prevent the police from taking away Abdul Rehman. Mr. Atiqur Rehman alleged the police shot his mother.
“They shot her and fled. They didn’t even pick her up,” he said.
Circle Officer Siddharthnagar Pradeep Kumar Yadav said the police had gone to conduct a raid at the location when local villagers surrounded the police team and started pelting stones at them. They also fired, said the officer.
Second incident
This is the second such incident in May in which the Uttar Pradesh police have been accused of killing a relative of an accused person or suspect during a raid. Recently, in Chandauli, the police were accused of beating to death the daughter of a Gangsters Act accused person, following which they were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
