Farrukhabad: After eleven long hours of stand off, the Uttar Pradesh police managed to rescue the 23 children kept hostage by a murder accused here after midnight on Thursday.
Irate villagers then lynched the criminal Subhash Batham and his wife. While the man died on the spot, his wife succumbed to her injuries early Friday, sources said.
Batham was heavily drunk when the police rescued the children.
UP government has announced an award of Rs 10 lakh to the police team for their brave act, announced Director General of Police O P Singh.
Appreciating the patience of the policemen, the DGP announced at around 0200 hrs that the “operation masum” was completed at 0130 hrs with rescue of all the 23 children.
Around 25 children, under 10 years age, had been taken into hostage by the ‘psycho” criminal in his house at Kasaria village under Mohammadabad police station area on Thursday.
However, the criminal had released a six-month-old child after she fell sick at around 2300 hrs.
A letter was also given by the accused along with the released child addressed to the District Magistrate alleging that the Gram Pradhan was not allotting him Pradhanmantri Awas and toilet project due to which his ailing mother and other family members were facing a problem.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held an emergency meeting in Lucknow late in the night and directed the police to rescue the children unharmed at any cost.
Batham had taken the children hostage when they had come to celebrate his daughter’s first birthday.
The children had gone to this house at around 1400 hrs for the celebration but he locked them up in a room.
Batham, a murder convict, was out on bail but was again sent back to the jail in a theft case.
Eye witnesses said when some local people tried to break open the door, he started firing from inside in which one person and two policemen were injured. Batham even hurled a low-intensity bomb from the window. He allegedly shouted that he had been framed in a criminal case.
However, the accused asked people to talk to him but when anyone came near him he opened fire. Even his demand to call local BJP MLA Nagendra Singh was also met, but it failed to pacify Batham.
IG Kanpur Mohit Agarwal also rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operation. (UNI)