Timely intervention of senior officers saved the day for the SP and other personnel of Deoria Police as they were held hostage by a violent mob. The crowd went berserk after the murder of a panchayat member Arun Singh on Thursday night.
The scenario had an eerie resemblance to Balipur village of Pratapgarh wherein Deputy SP of Kunda, Zia-ul-Haq was lynched by a mob after the murder of a pradhan and his brother on March.
In Deoria too, the lower rung personnel slipped away from the scene leaving their officers to the mercy of the mob. In fact, the local SO and his team fled even as the SP and his team and some other cops were held hostage.
As per reports, panchayat member Arun Singh was sprayed with bullets in Gauri Bazar area on Thursday night. later his kin and supporters went on the rampage and attacked the houses of the suspects before torching it. luckily some neighbours rescued a woman and her three children who were locked inside by the mob.
Station Officer(SO) of Gauribazar, Ashok Yadav reached the spot but in fear of being targeted by the mob, made no attempts to defuse the situation and called his seniors for help.
As SP of Deoria, Umesh Chandra Srivastava rushed to the scene but by then the mob went out of control. They blocked the Gorakhpur highway and attacked locals and media persons and damaged their cameras. When the SP tried to chase them away, the mob mob held the officer hostage along with his team.
Surprisingly watching the situation spiral ot of control, the SO slipped away from the scene. The mob held the SP and his team hostage for about three hours before DIG Range, Naveen Arora rushed there with additional force and rescued them.
Srivastava later claimed that the situation was brought under control and the people responsible for holding them hostage in Gauri Bazar were being identified and will be arrested. He claimed that a case regarding murder of Arun Singh has been registered and efforts were being made to nab the accused.
The SP has set up an enquiry to look into the role of the SO and other cops who fled the scene. He promised that stern action would be taken against the errants who escaped from duty.