New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday finally broke his silence on the death of police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh during the mob violence in Bulandshahr after four days. He described it as an accident.

Singh was shot in the head on Monday. The mob, which according to the police FIR was formed of men from right-wing Hindu outfits, had also blocked cops from taking him for treatment and he had died before he could reach the hospital.

Police has booked 90 men for the incident, naming 28 of them. The suspects include members of BJP Yuva Morcha, VHP and the Bajrang Dal.

But Adityanath said it was not a case of mob lynching in Uttar Pradesh. “It was an accident,” he said, adding that everyone responsible will be punished and not be spared.

The UP chief minister has already been criticised for his reaction to the mob violence, as he first attended poll rallies in Telangana and Rajasthan, and a laser show in Gorakhpur, before calling for a review meeting on the incident.

At the meeting, he directed the police officers to nab the alleged cow slaughterers on priority, but was curiously silent on the cop’s murder or the violence.

He met the victim’s family only on Thursday, three days after the death, and the meeting too was scheduled after he faced backlash.

His statement also contradicts the findings in the probe report prepared by the Additional Director General (Intelligence) SB Shirodkar.

The report, which is waiting to be seen by the CM, has called the violence a larger conspiracy, with the likely intent to clash with the Muslim procession passing through Bulandshahr-Garhmukteshwar State Highway on Monday.

The report said that the biggest sign of the violence being a pre-planned conspiracy was that the cow carcass found at the spot, which was the trigger, was 48 hours old and was most likely not slaughtered in Sayana village as claimed by Barjrang Dal’s district head Yogesh Raj, who had in his police complaint stated that he witnessed the cow being killed.

It further said that the mob behaviour suggests that some in the crowd were deliberately trying to escalate the situation and ensure violence.