Bulandshahr violence: Right-wing leaders, including one associated with BJP youth wing, were among the main accused who incited the mob to kill Subodh Kumar Singh on Monday in violence which broke out in Bulandshahr district in Uttar Pradesh.

Right-wing leaders, including one associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) youth wing, were among the main accused who incited the mob to murder Subodh Kumar Singh, the inspector who died on Monday in violence which broke out in Bulandshahr district in Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, leaders of BJP youth wing, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been mentioned in the FIR. Yogesh Raj, one of the prime accused, is Bajrang Dal's district head for Bulandshahr. Apart from him, Shikhar Agarwal, who is also named in FIR, is linked with BJP's youth wing in Syana while Upendra Raghav is said to be linked with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Raj was the primary complainant in the first FIR, lodged against unnamed suspects charged with cow slaughter, which is illegal in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

In all, the police have registered a case against at least 80 people in relation to the case of violence, vandalism and killing of the inspector and one 21-year-old man. The police has named 27 of the accused in the first information report, and booked around 50 to 60 unnamed accused. The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested four people so far.

"Four of the named accused have been arrested," Circle Officer, Syana, Satya Prakash Sharma told PTI on Tuesday. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Bulandshahr, Krishna B Singh said police were probing the matter and raids were being conducted to arrest the other accused.

On Monday, a protest led by a Hindu mob against alleged cow slaughter in Bulandshahr district turned violent which led to the killings.

The FIR, accessed by Firstpost, revealed that the many villagers, who were part of the mob, were already carrying batons, sharp weapons and pistols when the police party reached at the scene of crime to pacify them. Recording the sequence of events, the FIR stated that a police party comprising Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh reached the Mahaw village in Bulandshahr and tried to pacify an agitated mob protesting the alleged killing of a cow. The report states that despite the police officials giving assurance of a strict action against people who killed the cattle, the mob turned violent around 1.30 pm on Monday.

The police has lodged two FIRs in the case: one FIR has been filed against the alleged cattle slaughter and the other against the violent protesters who murdered two people on Monday.

The people, who already came armed with various weapons, attacked the police party. The mob damaged the property of the local police station and started pelting stones on the police party. The FIR specified that all accused, including Raj, were inciting the mob to resort to violence.

Singh, who was trying to control the wild mob, was hit by a stone in the head when his driver bundled him into his SUV and tried to take him to hospital. However, a violent mob followed the car, cornered it in a field and shot the police officer. "They didn't let us reach the hospital. They were shouting, shoot him, shoot him. I ran for my life. I am not sure what the mob did when they reached the jeep," the driver told CNN-News18.

The mob also snatched the service revolver and three mobile phones from one of the police officers. The FIR said that the mob was continuously firing at the police party. The protesters included residents of Mahaw and neighbouring Chingrawathi village. Some reports claimed that the police officer was shot with his own service revolver, however, Firstpost could not independently verify this claim.

The report said that the people who were part of the mob fled after the killing of Singh and Chingrawthi resident Sumit in the violence. The post-mortem report of Inspector Singh, who was posted at Siana Police Station, revealed that he suffered a gunshot injury in addition to wounds from hard and blunt objects, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar told reporters. Singh was also the investigating officer in the Dadri lynching case in 2015, he said. Kumar said the ADG-intelligence has been asked to submit a report in 48 hours which will throw light on circumstances of Singh's death.

The violence started at around 10 am in Siana area in the district where a major three-day Islamic congregation had concluded this afternoon. The police warned against attempts to spread any misleading information, saying the incident was not related in any way to the congregation. "The incident occurred 40-50 km away from the congregation site. Some miscreants were behind the violence and action is being taken against them in accordance with law," the Bulandshahr Police tweeted in the evening. Akhlaq was lynched in 2015 by a mob that had barged into his residence in Dadri following rumour that he stored beef in his house after slaughtering a calf.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 147, 148, 149 (related to rioting), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 341 (wrongful restraint), 302 (murder), 307 (murder attempt), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house), among others.

With inputs from 101 Reporters