Lucknow: The Farrukhabad hostage drama, which lasted more than 10 hours, was not a random act but instead was planned in advance by the accused Subhash Batham. Thursday evening witnessed parents of 23 kids, who were taken hostage by a murder accused at a village in Farrukhabad, panicking as the accused unleashed fresh criminal activity after being bailed for another.
After being asked for his demands, the accused Subhash Batham had handed over a letter in which he had alleged that he was not getting a toilet and house from the government even after repeated attempts. He was denied the free toilet under Swatch Bharat Mission and a house under PM Awas Yojna by the village head and even senior officials were not paying any heed to his request. The letter in possession of News18 is addressed to the District Magistrate and elaborates on how Subhash was being denied toilet and house under government schemes.
The prime accused Subhash and his wife sent out invitations to their neighbors for the birthday celebrations of their daughter, two or three days before the incident. The locals raised questions as the birthday of his daughter was already celebrated again in less than a year’s time. However, many locals without raising much doubt over the invite sent their kids to the house of Batham at around 5pm on Thursday.
The couple then locked up the children inside the house, while Subhash geared up with firearms and even carried a grenade which he later threw on the police. Parents of the 23 kids realizing that their kids have not returned home from the birthday party, reached the house of Subhash which they found locked up from inside. As one local asked Subhash to open the door, he fired at his leg of the local and locked up the door once again.
Soon the police are informed and the house is geraoed by the locals along with cops who try to negotiate with Subhash. The first demand that comes from inside the house was to speak to the local MLA, who is called on the spot. But as soon as MLA reaches the spot, Subhash refused to speak to him and opens fires from inside the house. Some cops try to barge inside the house but again firing takes places from inside the house which is followed by a hand grenade thrown from inside the house injuring two policemen.
The news then reaches the state capital and DGP OP Singh comes into action and calls for a team of specially trained cops to arrive at the spot. CM Yogi Adityanath also calls for an emergency meeting and makes it clear that the priority at the moment was the safety of the kids. An NSG team in Delhi is also informed in case it was needed.
Post midnight, the specially trained cops arrive at the scene. However at around 1 am, the villagers gathered around the house of the accused start stone-pelting as a part of a strategy and break open the door of the house. The police then enter the house and shoot down Subhash in exchange of fire. The angry locals also beat up Ruby, wife of Subhash leaving her critically injured. Subhash’s wife is then rushed to a hospital where she succumbs to her injuries.
Speaking to media about the entire operation UP DGP OP Singh said, “The operation ran for around 8 hours. We tried to engage him constructively through talks but we got information that he had firing capability and there was a possibility that he had explosives in his possession. He was threatening to carry out a blast.”
UP Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary Home Awanish Kumar Awasthi on children kept as hostage at a house in Farrukhabad said, “The person who was holding the children as hostage has been killed in an operation and all children have been safely evacuated.”