Army Detains Soldier Who Allegedly Shot UP Cop Dead During Bulandshahr Violence, Fled to Kashmir

New Delhi: The Army jawan who is suspected to have shot police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh during the mob frenzy triggered by rumours of cow slaughter in Bulandshahr has been detained by his unit and will be handed over to Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday.

Jeentendra Malik, aka Jeetu Fauji, will be taken on transit remand by the UP Police's Special Task Force, which is in Srinagar to arrest him, and he will be presented in the Bulandshahr district court, sources told News18. He was nabbed on Friday night after he reached his unit in Sopore.

The Army had in a statement promised to extend full cooperation to the police and confirmed that its Northern Command had been approached to nab the accused.

Meerut Zone IG Ram Kumar had told News18 that based on the statements of villagers, it was found that Jeetu Fauji was the one who had allegedly fired the shot that killed the inspector.

Kumar said that Jeetu was a resident of Mahaw village and his role in the cop’s killing would only be clear after questioning.

It was also reported that the police, after scouring through videos of the riot, found Jeetu to be in close proximity to Singh at the time of his murder.

While Jeetu’s mother Ratan Kaur said she could not identify her son from videos of the mob attack, his relatives confirmed that he was present when the mob killing took place. They said he left for J&K soon after the incident.

The mother said that she would kill Jeetu herself if it was proved that he had shot dead the police inspector during the violence.

Speaking to a TV news channel, she said, “If any evidence like a picture or a video emerges showing he killed the policeman, then I will kill him myself.”

“I’m not so heartless. I’m equally pained by the death of the policeman and the other boy from Chingrawathi and also for what the entire village and its people are going through,” she said.

Inspector Kumar and his team had gone to the Sayana village of Bulandshahr to tackle the violence when they came under attack. He was shot in the head.

The police had arrested four individuals for their alleged role in the mob violence which erupted after cow carcasses were found scattered in a forest near the village.