In a fresh development in the Bulandshahr firing in Uttar Pradesh in which a police Inspector and a civilian were killed, a soldier allegedly involved was detained by his unit in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, Army sources said.
Jitendra Malik alias Jeetu Fauji was detained by the 22 Rashtriya Rifles in Sopore town.
A special investigation team (SIT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police was expected to reach later to take him into custody.
Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a civilian, Sumit Kumar, were shot dead in Bulandshahr in mob violence last week.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday transferred Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of Police Krishna Bahadur Singh and attached him to the office of the Director General of Police here, a Home Department official said on Saturday.
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Two more police officials have also been transferred in connection with the mob violence, authorities said.
Circle Officer (CO) Satya Prakash Sharma and Suresh Kumar, the in-charge of Chingravathi police chowki, have been transferred "for their failure in responding in time to the situation arising on Monday in that area".
The decision was taken on the basis of a report submitted by the Additional Director General of Police S.B. Shiradkar.
The senior Home Department official said they have been taken to task for not being fast enough in reacting to the situation that arose after some Hindu right-wing activists found some animal carcasses in a field and took them on tractor-trolleys to block a road.
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The action was taken after a high-level meeting was presided over by the Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh, who had handed over the report to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on his arrival from New Delhi.
Adityanath, though, has already termed the Bulandshahr incident an "accident".
He had earlier said the incident was the result of a "big conspiracy" but at a media event in Delhi on Friday he said that the incident was actually an accident.
"No mob lynching happened in Uttar Pradesh, what happened in Bulandshahr is an accident," he said.
The police have arrested nine accused but the main conspirator Yogesh Raj, the district convener of the Bajrang Dal, continues to be at large.
(IANS)
