Gujarat: Murder accused attacks cops, killed in encounter

A man accused of kidnapping and murdering a minor girl was killed in an encounter in Gujarat’s Anand district after he allegedly attacked police personnel with a concealed knife while trying to escape from custody, an official said on Monday.

Two policemen sustained injuries in the attack on Sunday night. The accused, whom the police shot in self-defence, died during treatment, Inspector General of Ahmedabad Range Raghavendra Vatsa said.

“A person accused of kidnapping and killing a minor girl has been killed in an encounter as he tried to escape after attacking police with a concealed knife on Sunday night. Two policemen received injuries in the knife attack,” Vatsa told reporters. Police identified the deceased as Suresh Parmar, in his late 20s, who was accused of kidnapping and murdering a four-and-a-half-year-old girl from Vasad in the district.

According to Anand police, the girl was sleeping with her parents, who are migrant labourers, on a platform at the Vasad railway station and was abducted at around 9.15 pm on Saturday. Later, the body was found on the railway tracks early on Sunday.

The railway station’s CCTV footage showed the accused taking the child away. Multiple teams of the railway police, Anand district police, Local Crime Branch (LCB), Special Operations Group and Vasad police launched a search operation.

Parmar, a resident of Borsad town in Anand, was arrested late Sunday evening by Borsad rural police and handed over to the LCB for further investigation, the police said.

While the LCB personnel were bringing Parmar to Anand town on Sunday night, he asked the escorting team to stop the vehicle, claiming he needed to vomit. After the vehicle halted, he allegedly attacked two policemen with a hidden knife in an attempt to flee, causing injuries to both of them, they said.

A sub-inspector repeatedly warned the accused to surrender, but he continued the attack, forcing the police to open fire in self-defence, the police said.

Parmar sustained a bullet injury and was taken to a hospital in Karamsad, where he succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Monday, they added.