One more accused allegedly involved in the killing of three cops in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna was gunned down in an encounter with the police on Tuesday.
With this, three accused have so far been killed while four others have been arrested in connection with the killing of three policemen on Saturday. Two accused are still on the run, the police said.
The police said that Tuesday’s encounter took place in a forest near Haripura village. The police got information about the presence of one of the accused — Chhotu Pathan (30) — in the Ruthiyai area late on Monday night.
Subsequently, a police team started searching for him and confronted him in the forest near Haripura.
“When he was asked to surrender, the accused started firing on the police from a country-made pistol. He was killed in the retaliatory firing by the police. Constable Vinod Dhakad was also injured in the firing, while few bullets hit the police vehicle,” Superintendent of Police (SP), Rajiv Mishra, told mediapersons.
On May 14, three policemen were killed after a group of poachers, most of them hailing from one family, opened fire on them near Saga Barkheda village, some 60 km from the Guna district headquarters.
Two other accused, identified as Nisar Khan (70) and his son Shahraj Khan (52), both residents of Bidhoria village, were arrested on Monday and a service rifle snatched from a deceased policeman was recovered from them.
After the incident, a house-to-house search was conducted in Bidhoria village, which led to the discovery of the bullet-hit body of one of the accused, Naushad Khan (35), who was killed in retaliatory firing by the police.
The same day, another accused, Shahzad Khan (38), was killed in an encounter with the police.
Later, the police arrested two accused, Shanu alias Shafaq Khan (27) and Mohammad Jiya Khan (28). Two others wanted in the case, identified as Gullu Khan (25) and Vicky aka Dilshad Khan (25), are still absconding.
The poachers were hunting black buck for meat for a wedding function in Naushad Khan’s family when a police team arrived at the spot after getting a tip-off about their presence, leading to the firing and the retaliatory action, officials said.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)
