Wife of Farrukhabad hostage-taker attacked with stones, bricks by mob, dies

The wife of the man, who had taken almost two dozen children as hostages at his house in Farrukhabad, too died after she was attacked by the agitated mob on Friday morning.

New Delhi: The wife of the Uttar Pradesh man, who was killed for holding at least 23 children as hostages at a birthday party in Farrukhabad, died on Friday after she was brutally thrashed and attacked with bricks and stones by a mob. The woman reportedly sustained injuries all over including her head and was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition where she succumbed to her injuries. 

Confirming the report, Mohit Aggrawal, Inspector General Kanpur, told PTI, "When we sent her to the hospital, she was injured. She sustained injuries on her head. Her head was bleeding. As police killed her husband (the accused in the case), she tried to flee. As the children were kept hostage by both husband and wife, the villagers, in a fit of rage, pelted stones and bricks at her." 

"Postmortem report will clear everything, further details on the cause of death will only come out after the report," the IG said. 

On January 30, murder-accused Subhash Batham, who was out on bail, along with his wife, held at least 23 children as hostages at Kasaria village in Farrukhabad after inviting them to his house on the pretext of celebrating his one-year-old daughter's birthday. When the children were inside, Batham bolted the door and held everyone at gunpoint. When the children did not return home, their parents got worried and realised that something was wrong. 

It is not clear if Batham or his wife any demands but he fired several times at the police and villagers, injuring two policemen and a few locals. He even lobbed a low-intensity hand grenade when people tried to enter his house to rescue the children.

Quick Response Team (QRT), Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel and a team of Anti-Terrorism Squad were on the spot when the encounter took place. According to reports, the encounter lasted for around 11 hours. As Batham opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot and thereafter, rescued all the 23 children from the building were they were kept. During the hostage rescue operation, a man and two police officials suffered injuries.