A sub-Inspector was killed while a Station Officer was injured in an encounter with dreaded brigand Babli Kol and his gang in the jungles of Nihi Chiraiya in Manikpur police station area of Chitrakoot in the wee hours of Thursday.
Confirming the death of sub-inspector JP Singh of Raipura police station and injury to an SO, ADG (law and Order) Anand Kumar said on Thursday that the cops were still engaged in cross firing and combing operation were on till late in the evening. The top cop said that one of the injured dacoits was taken into custody and was presently undergoing treatment. He also said that some weapons were recovered by the police and some of the brignads who managed to escape were suspected to have been injured in the police firing.
Sources in Chitrakoot, however confirmed that the sub-inspector died due to negligence of local officers who took no safety measures before sending the police team to carry out the anti-dacoity operation.
Detailing about the encounter, Anand Kumar said that a police team after learning about the presence of dreaded brigand Babli Kol in the jungle of Nihi Chiraiya launched a combing operation for two hours around Wednesday midnight. Kol carries a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh and is wanted in over three dozen heinous cases.
During the operation, the gang members suddenly opened fire at the police team which was retaliated but sub-inspector JP Singh suffered bullet injuries and was rushed to a Primary Health Centre where he succumbed.
The ADG said that later Station Officer of Bahelpura Virenda Tripathi also received bullet injuries and was rushed to a hospital and was out of danger. However, the police team managed to nab dacoit Raju Kol, who carried a reward of Rs 10,000 and two other dacoits.
The top cop said that further details about the encounter was yet to be known as mobile connectivity was very poor in the area but senior officers along with teams from neighbouring Banda, Mahoba and Hamirpur disytricts have joined the combing operation.
Sources in Chitrakut however claimed that sub-inspector JP Singh had been working on Babli Kol and had managed to nab two of his cronies. fter grilling them, he tried to recover weapons used by the Kol gang which was said to be hidden in the Nihi Chiraiya jungles. On the direction of local offices, Singh took the two brigands to the jungles late on Wednesday night and was accompanied only by three other cops.
Sources said that the brigands took the police team to a hideout telling that the weapons could be recovered from there. But as the team started searching, one of them suddenly took out a firearm and opened fire in which Singh was critically injured. later, the police managed to nab the other brigand identified as Raju Kol but the one who shot the cop fled. Upon learning of the incident, local officers rushed and a combing operation was carried out through out Thursday in which a Station Officer was injured but so far no breakthrough has been made.
Sources alleged that had the senior officers adopted the basic safety measures before sending the police team to recover the weapons, the life of sub-inspector JP Singh could have been saved.