Bulandshahr: Mobile phone of inspector killed in mob violence recovered from house of accused

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday recovered the mobile phone of a police inspector, who was killed in mob violence in Bulandshahr last month, from the house of the accused who had allegedly shot him dead, ANI reported.

“The mobile phone of the deceased policeman Subodh Kumar Singh has been found from the house of Prashant Natt,” said Bulandshahr Superintendent (City) Atul Srivastav. Natt, who was arrested on December 27, is suspected to have snatched Singh’s revolver and shot him in the head.

“Information was received through sources about the location of the mobile phone of Subodh Kumar Singh,” said Srivastav. “We have recovered the phone after a search operation at the location.”

A Special Investigation Team conducted the search after the chief judicial magistrate court issued a warrant, News18 reported. Srivastav said five other mobile phones were also found at Natt’s house and all the phones have been sent to a forensic laboratory to find more leads, PTI reported.

Srivastav added that the police were still looking for the gun that was used to shoot Singh.

Singh and a 20-year-old civilian, Sumit, were killed when a mob attacked policemen after cattle carcasses were allegedly found in the fields in Mahaw village on December 3. Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj, the main accused in the violence, was arrested on January 2. The police earlier had also arrested another key accused, Kalua, who had allegedly attacked Singh with an axe.

So far, the police have arrested 35 people in connection with the violence. Two first information reports were registered in its aftermath. The first, related to the mob violence, initially named 27 people.

The other FIR was filed against those accused of cow slaughter. The Bulandshahr district administration on January 14 had invoked the National Security Act against three of the seven people arrested in connection with the incident of the alleged cow slaughter.