Cops paraded Rohit in public in Misrod on Saturday, and egged on people to whack him

BHOPAL: Hostage taker Rohit Singh , who allegedly stabbed a model and held her confined in her bedroom for 12 hours in Bhopal on Friday, got a taste of public ‘justice’.

Cops paraded Rohit in public in Misrod on Saturday, and egged on people to whack him. Archana Sapre, a resident of the township where the rescued hostage lives, told TOI that police had informed them about the parade in advance. It was SP-south R K Lodha, who ordered that Rohit be paraded in public “to send a message”.

Residents, mostly women, lined up on the road with sticks, sandals and black paint. Rohit was brought in and the crowd was allowed to have a go at him.

The hostage taker, who claims to work as an assistant casting director in Bollywood, was unfazed. Showing just how dangerous he can be, he grabbed sub-inspector Rajni Chouhan’s hand — despite being hemmed in by cops — squeezed it hard and wouldn’t let go. It took two cops to prise his fingers off her.

Meanwhile, residents beat him with sandals, shoes and sticks. They were upset that they were not allowed to blacken his face. Sapre rues that the jostling of reporters and camerapersons did not give them enough room to assault him.

While this mob justice was playing out, the hostage lay in ICU, an oxygen mask covering her face. She is lucky to be alive because the scissors stab wound in her neck was 2 inches deep. The carotid artery is only about 2cm under the skin, which means the blades missed it by millimetres.

She bled for 12 hours from this wound and another stab to the thigh — again missing the femoral artery and major blood vessels — as police dragged on the negotiations.

She has been given three blood transfusions and still has an alarmingly low haemoglobin count of 6 gm/dl because of excessive blood loss, say sources in the medical staff treating her.

“Rohit had taken us hostage in our own home a few months ago. He was emboldened to repeat the offence because he wasn’t dealt with strictly then. We do not feel safe and don’t know if he will leave us alone now. He might attack us again. I feel he should rot in jail for life,” said the model’s mother.

ASP (Zone-II) Dinesh Kaushal, told TOI that she described him as a “psycho”. According to her, he broke into the house when her father had gone out for his morning walk, said Kaushal. “At gunpoint, he kept pressuring her to marry him and sign the stamp paper provided by police. When she resisted, he stabbed her with scissors. She decided to play submissive because she knew that he would shoot her if she fought him,” the ASP said.

