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Updated: Jan 28, 2019 12:30 IST

A day after the Uttar Pradesh police claimed to have recovered slain police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh’s phone from the home of the main accused Prashant Natt, his wife claimed that the police itself had planted the phone.

“Police came to us saying they have a search warrant. They asked which room is Prashant’s. Two cops went in and kept a phone on the dressing table there. When we said it isn’t ours, they told us to shut up. Police had brought the phone along with themselves,” news agency ANI quoted her as saying.

SSP Bulandshahar Ajay Kumar refuted the allegations. “The accused will never accept their crime. The search was carried out on court’s order and 6 mobile phone were recovered from the house of Natt,” he said.

On Saturday, the Uttar Pradesh police claimed to have recovered six mobile phones from Prashant Natt’s residence. Prashant Natt was arrested on December 27 in connection with the killing of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in the violence that took place at Syana in Bulandshahr district on December 3.

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After the recovery of the phones from Prashant Natt’s home in Chingrawathi village, Syana police circle officer Ravindra Kumar Mishra said one of the six phones appeared to be that of Subodh Kumar Singh. Mishra said once it is established that the phone belonged to Singh, “it will help the police prove that Natt was at the crime spot and took away the phone after killing the inspector”.

Mishra said Natt’s family has been asked for the documents for the other five phones to identify their owners.

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a local resident were killed when a mob went on a rampage over alleged cow slaughter in the district on December 3. Inspector Singh was attacked with stones and an axe before Natt, a taxi driver, allegedly shot him dead. Singh’s two mobile phones and a pistol were reported missing after his killing. The police are yet to recover the pistol.

As many as 37 accused in the case have either been arrested or have surrendered. They include Bajrang Dal’s Yogesh Raj, BJP leader Shikhar Agarwal, and Upendra Raghav of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Raj and Agarwal were arrested while Raghav surrendered before a court. Police had booked 27 and at least 60 unidentified people for Singh’s killing on December 3. The state government has separately booked Azhar Khan, Nadeem Khan, and Mehboob Ali under the National Security Act (NSA) for the alleged cow slaughter that sparked the violence.