india

Updated: Dec 09, 2018 20:27 IST

The Uttar Pradesh government transferred another police officer over allegations of negligence on Sunday, even as an Indian Army soldier was questioned over the killing of a police inspector and a 21-year-old man in mob violence following allegations of cow slaughter in Bulandshahr.

Additional superintendent of police (rural) of Bulandshahr, Raaes Akhtar, was the fourth officer to be removed after the violence that erupted on December 3 after the recovery of cow carcasses in the district’s Mahwa village.

Special Task Force deputy superintendent Brajesh Kumar said the soldier, who was handed over by the army to the UP Police on Saturday and arrested shortly after midnight, denied any role in the violence during interrogation by a special investigation team set up to probe the matter. Jitendra Malik alias Jeetu Fauji was later sent to 14-day judicial custody.

An SIT member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Malik told investigators he had no motive to kill the police inspector. The jawan denied he was carrying a firearm during the violence, the SIT member said. He added that the police will apply for the jawan’s custody on Monday to question him further.

Malik’s lawyer Sanjay Sharma said he will move his client’s bail application on Monday. “Jitendra Malik told the court that he had no involvement in the inspector’s murder,” he said.

A team of the army brought Malik from Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir late on Saturday and handed him over to officials of the STF in Meerut. He was shifted to Bulandshahar late at night, according to the police.

On December 3, a mob of about 400 people rampaged through a village in Bulandshahr after reports of cow carcasses being found in a jungle nearby. During the violence, inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a 21-year-old man named Sumit Kumar died of gunshot wounds.

Principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar said on Sunday Akhtar was transferred to the post of ASP, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) headquarters in Lucknow. Manish Mishra (a Provincial Police Service officer), who was serving as in-charge of a modern control room in Ghaziabad, will replace Akhtar, an IPS officer of the 2014 batch, he said.

The three other police officers are senior superintendent of police Krishna Bahadur Singh, Syana circle officer Satya Prakash Sharma and Chingrwathi police outpost in-charge Suresh Kumar.

Top UP officials swung into action soon after chief minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with the principal secretary and director general of police OP Singh on Friday night. The meeting was held after the submission of a report on the violence and killings.

The UP government has been criticised by opposition leaders over law and order and for its handling of the situation after the violence. The CM said on Friday the violence was an “accident”, adding that those responsible for the violence would not be spared.

Police have arrested nine accused in the Bulandshahr case but the main conspirator, Yogesh Raj, the district convener of Bajrang Dal, is on the run. Raj claimed innocence in a video that surfaced online on Wednesday.