Cattle smugglers challenged the cops when they opened fire at a police party, which was trying to intercept a vehicle of the smugglers in Sambhal district on early Friday morning. One of the constables was critically injured in the firing while others were injured. The driver later fled from the spot. Reports said that the police control room was informed that a Alto car had turned turtle near a puliya at Raipur hamlet of Hyatnagar in Sambhal on early Friday morning. A police mobile team was rushed to the said spot to enquire the matter and help the victims. When the cops were helping the victims, the mobile one of them (victims) suddenly rang and as they picked it, the cops learnt that a truck loaded with cattle would pass from the area soon.
They immediately came on the road and on suspicion, tried to intercept the truck reportedly loaded with cattle. The truck also stopped but suddenly someone from inside opened fire and the driver also sped up the vehicle in which one of the constable identified as Arvind Kumar, received gun shot injury while his colleagues were injured after they were hit by the truck.
Reports said that the smugglers managed to escape from the spot but the cops immediately raised an alert following which the cops of all the local police stations in Sambhal came on road and managed to trap to the vehicle near Janta Cold Storage. They recovered 27 cattle from the truck but the miscreants except of one of them, managed to jump out of the truck and escaped. The held accused revealed his identity as Muzamil, a resident of Sujadi in Muzaffarnagar. A case has been registered in this regard and efforts were made to arrest the remaining culprits.
Meanwhile in a separate incident reported from Amethi district, jawan of the Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) was critically injured after he was shot at allegedly by three youth on Friday morning. The incident reportedly occur after the victim resisted their attempt to rob him. Reports said that three motorcycle-borne youths tried to loot Arvind Kumar Yadav and later opened fire at him when he resisted their bid in Piparpur area of Amethi district, on Friday morning. Yadav sustained bullet injury in his hand and was rushed to a hospital from where he was referred to Medical College in Allahabad. An FIR has been registered and police is investigating the case. No one was arrested in the matter till the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile a in a major drug haul, sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have seized over three quintals of narcotics worth around Rs 2.5 crore in the street market and also claimed to have busted a gang of smugglers with the arrest of five
persons in Gorakhpur district on Friday. IG (Public Grievances) at DGP office, claimed that sleuths of the STF had arrested Vijay Kumar Chauhan, hailing from Udaigadi district of Assam, Dipak, Arvind, Nand lal and Shivapal, hailing from Mau, Gazipur and Mainpuri districts of the State. The trap was made near Bhaisha village in Khorawar area of Gorakhpur on Friday morning. He said that they also recovered 3.3 quintals of cannabis, estimated to be worth about Rs 2.5 crore in the international market. He said that the team learnt that the consignment was dispatched from Assam and brought through Bihar to UP and later disposed off in the market. The local police is probing the matter further and trying to find their links with Assam based suppliers as well of their conduits in Bihar.