After a hostage situation occurred, that lasted for about nine hours in Farrukhabad area of UP, (India), the UP Police managed to rescue the 23 children who had been taken captive by a murder accused who had been bailed out. While the children were rescued, the accused Subhash Batham was killed in the ensuing police encounter.
UP Additional Secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi confirmed that Subash Batham had been killed in an encounter and that all children were rescued safely.
Batham, who was armed, took 23 children as hostage on Thursday, after inviting them for a fake birthday party of his son, at his house in a village in Farrukhabad. The children went to his house at around 3 pm. As soon as locals realised the children had been taken hostage, they alarmed the local police of the whole situation.
At around 5 pm, Batham fired from inside the house on those who tried to speak to him, leading to a policeman and a local getting injured. While others who waited, wanted police to hide away, as Batham blackmailed to kill the children if police was seen around.
SP and the DM reached the spot and after rigorous efforts by the team for consecutive 7 hours, Batham released a six-month-old girl as a special team and other officials engaged with him. Reportedly, the girl was handed over to the neighbours through balcony.
The stand-off with police lasted for 10 hours, during which officers tried to negotiate with him.
On learning that he had firing capabilities and after his bomb-threats, all senior police officials decided to attack him,” said Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Om Prakash Singh.
When police strategically entered the building, the man was killed in a shootout.
All of the children, aged between six months and 15 years were brought to safety.
Subhash Batham also held his wife and daughter as hostage in the building. The neighbours gave the statement that, they very rarely saw the women coming out of the house. Batham’s act was vindictive as he believed that locals were responsible for his arrest in the murder case and he wanted to take revenge.
Batham’s wife, who has not been named, was then attacked by the agitated villagers, as she apparently tried to flee. Police said locals threw bricks and stones at her and beat her to death.
The woman later died of her injuries.
During the entire scene of the hours-long siege, several television channels appealed to Batham to contact them if he wanted to get his demands to the government or authorities, as according to certain reports, Batham was dissatisfied with the government for not providing good toilet facilities in his area. The case has created terror in the village, people are saying, things like these occur because of the fault in the system, where murderers like him are bailed out to commit the crime again.
