LUCKNOW: A student was killed by cattle smugglers after he confronted them during a clash with villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur on Monday evening. The smugglers dragged him into their vehicle, beat him, and pushed him out of the moving vehicle.
Gorakhpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Raj Karan Nayyar said, “We received information at around 3am that cattle smugglers had come to a village with two pickup vehicles. During this, when the villagers chased them, one vehicle got stuck in the village, the people of which fled from there and a youth from the village chased the second vehicle and the smugglers took him in their vehicle and later pushed him from the moving vehicle due to which he got a head injury and he died after falling on the road.”
Police said his body was found 4 km away from his home. They said the student’s family had been searching for him since Monday night, and it was only after 4.5 hours that they found his lifeless body with severe head injuries.
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{{/usCountry}}Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken serious cognizance of the incident and ordered strictest action against the culprits involved in the incident.
Senior police officials, including Gorakhpur deputy inspector general (DIG) S Chinappa and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Raj Karan Nayyar, and district magistrate (DM) Deepak Meena rushed to the spot to examine the situation and maintain law and order in the area.
Gorakhpur’s Chauri Chaura circle officer (CO) Anurag Singh, who is camping at the spot, said that the incident began when a group of 10-12 cattle smugglers arrived in the village of Mawa Achapee in Piparairch, Gorakhpur, around 11.30 pm on Monday.
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“They attempted to break into a furniture store owned by Durgesh Gupta, which is located at the village entrance. The store’s upper floor was being used as a travel office, where a relative of Durgesh was sleeping. The noise from the smugglers trying to break in alerted the relative, who immediately informed Durgesh’s son, Deepak Gupta. Deepak rushed to the store on his scooter, and around 10-15 villagers followed him when cattle smugglers dragged him to their vehicle and took him along,” he said.
The SSP said that a case has been registered under the relevant sections on the complaint of the victim’s family and postmortem proceedings are being done.
He further said that some people had spread a rumour that there was a firearm injury. “No firearm injury has been found. Our five teams are currently engaged in this. Our teams will soon arrest the accused. A search operation is going on in the village. One of the cattle smugglers was caught by the villagers and beaten up. He is undergoing treatment,” he said.
“During this, a stone hit a policeman. He is undergoing treatment. The family demands that the accused should be arrested soon and strict action should be taken against them,” he added.
Gorakhpur district magistrate (DM) Deepak Meena told media persons that the administration is in talks with the family of the deceased. “We will ensure proper compensation for the family of the deceased and further efforts are on to arrest the accused”.