A 50-year-old woman and her 3-year-old granddaughter are battling for their lives after they were allegedly shot at by a 15-year-old boy, who is their distant relative, in Sitapur.
Though the police believe it to be a case of ‘accidental’ firing, the FIR lodged by the woman’s husband alleges that the minor opened fire as he was annoyed over some issue.
The incident took place in a village under Talgaon police station of Sitapur.
The police said that the investigation so far had revealed that the boy got a country-made firearm from one of the villagers and fired it accidentally while trying to open it.
The police said the woman and her granddaughter were injured in the accidental firing and the boy did not intentionally shoot at them.
They said the .312 bore firearm had been recovered and the police were making efforts to arrest the person who gave the country-made pistol to a minor boy.
However, the woman’s husband Rana Pratap Singh, who runs a grocery shop near his house in Shadipur village, has lodged an FIR against the minor boy for an attempt to murder under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code at Talgaon police station. The woman, Kiran Devi, whose condition is stated to be serious, has been referred to the Trauma Centre of King George’s Medical University in Lucknow while the granddaughter, Aaradhya Singh, is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Sitapur.
The complainant mentioned in the FIR that he and his son Prabhakar Singh, who were present at their shop, rushed to the spot after hearing the gunshots and found the boy coming out of the house, carrying a firearm in his hand, while his wife and granddaughter were lying in pools of blood. He said they rushed the injured to the hospital from where his wife was referred to KGMU in Lucknow.
Rana, however, failed to give any reason for a dispute with the boy which made him attempt to kill Kiran Devi and Aaradhya Singh.
Further investigations are on in the case.
Meanwhile, three labourers died after the roof under construction of a marriage hall collapsed in Rudrapur under Kolhui police station of Maharajganj district on Wednesday night.
The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and a police team rescued 10 labourers. More labourers were said to be buried under the rubble and the rescue operation was going at the time of filing the report.
District Magistrate of Maharajganj, Anunay Jha, also reached the spot and ordered an investigation into the entire matter. The district magistrate said financial assistance would be given to the labourers who were victims of the accident.
The police have detained the owner of the marriage hall and the contractor doing the construction work.
Those killed in the mishap were identified as Yash (30), Ramashankar Bharti (30) and Neeraj (25).
The seriously injured Santosh Paswan, Suryaman, Shivnath, Ravindra, Sohan, Ajay Giri have been admitted to the district hospital.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the matter and has given instructions to help the victims.
