Bulandshahr violence: Five more arrested, Army man named accused

Lucknow: Five more persons were arrested on Friday for their alleged involvement in Uttar Pradesh`s Bulandshahr's mob violence earlier this week. With this, the total number of arrested person is up to nine.

The development comes amid the name of a Jeetu Fauji, an Army personnel, cropping up as the one of the accused during investigation.

The UP Police has contacted the Northern Command of the Indian Army to identify Jeetu. "The police has contacted Northern Command and fullest cooperation is being extended," said a source.

Fauji is reportedly working with the Border Security Force (BSF) and posted in the Kargil sector. 

A team of police has left for Jammu to arrest him, the officer said while also clarifying that his exact role and complicity in the mob violence, which left two persons including a police inspector dead, will be clear after the probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

A UP Police team has already sent a team to Jammu to nab an Army soldier.

Meanwhile, ADG (Intelligence) S.B. Shiradkar, who was sent to Bulandshahr specially by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the aftermath of the violence, submitted his report to DGP O.P. Singh on Friday. 

Officials told IANS that the report would be submitted to CM Adityanath when he comes back to the state capital from New Delhi on Saturday.

A mob of around 400 people, including right-wing activists, clashed with the police on December 3 in Siana area of Bulandshahr district, after allegedly discovering cow carcasses thrown in a nearby jungle. The angry mob set fire to dozens of vehicles, stone pelted and fired at police who then retaliated with gunfire. Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, the station house officer of Siana who once investigated Akhlaq lynching case, and 20-year-old Sumit Kumar were killed in the incident. 

Following the massive political and public outrage over the incident, the police arrested four people a day later. However, the main suspect – Bajrang Dal Bulandshahr convenor Yogesh Raj – is still absconding. Nearly 90 people have been named in an FIR filed in the case.