BJP Youth Leader Who Blamed Bulandshahr Cop For Violence Arrested

A man wanted by the police in the mob violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, in which a police officer was killed, was arrested late last night. Shikhar Agarwal, a local BJP youth wing leader, was caught from the town of Hapur, 37 km from Bulandshahr.

Shikhar Agarwal had released a video last month, blaming officer Subodh Kumar Singh for the violence which erupted around a police post on December 3 over alleged cow slaughter. He claimed that it was the police officer who created tension by stopping him and others from taking cow carcasses to the police post for filing a complaint over the alleged slaughter.

Last week, Yogesh Raj, a Bajrang Dal activist dubbed "Accused no 1" in the killing of the officer, was caught. He was arrested nearly a month after the mob frenzy.

Violence broke out in Bulandshahr on December 3 over alleged cow slaughter. (File)

Shikhar Agarwal claimed in the video that Mr Singh threatened to kill him and his aides. He said he later told Chandra Maurya, a senior police officer, about the "threat. He also accused Mr Singh of being "corrupt" and "siding with the Muslim community" to perpetuate cow slaughter.

"We are interrogating him and will produce him in the local court later today," Additional Superintendent of Police (Bulandhshahr city) Atul Kumar Srivastava told news agency PTI.

Five Muslim men arrested on the basis of Yogesh Raj's complaint were held for two weeks and eventually let off for lack of evidence.

After criticism, the police arrested 30 for the policeman's murder. A young man too was killed in the mob violence.

Bulandshahr violence: Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was chased, cornered in a field and shot dead by the mob of 400. (File)

A man arrested on January 1, Kalua, is accused of attacking the inspector with an axe, chopping off a couple of his fingers and then inflicting a head wound.

Prashant Nutt, the man who allegedly shot the officer, was arrested on December 28. He, Kalua and a third man, Johnny, who had snatched the officer's revolver were identified from a cellphone video. An army man, Jitendra Malik, another key accused in the killing, was arrested on December 9 and is currently in judicial custody.

(With inputs from PTI)