Five family members shot dead in Azamgarh, accused and his son also killed

Author, Gaurav Gulmohar

Designation for BBC Hindi

.....from, Azamgarh

Published 4 minutes ago

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Five people died in a firing incident involving the same family in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.

Police have said that on Tuesday, in Shambhupur village of Ahraula police station area, a man named Arvind Singh shot dead his wife, son and two priests who had come to their house to chant Gayatri for five days.

Arvind Singh's elderly mother has confirmed the incident in front of the media. He told that "This incident happened when Gayatri chanting was going on in the house."

According to the information received, this religious ritual was for five days but on the fourth day there was an altercation between Arvind Singh and the priests involved in the ritual.

According to the police, "Arvind Singh attacked the priests with his licensed pistol, the wife who came to save the priests also died due to the bullet."

After this, he locked himself in a room of the house along with his three children. During this time, the police also called SOG commandos to control the situation.

Police say that "after a standoff that lasted for about seven hours, the police tried to enter the room."

Police also claim that "During this time, Arvind shot a child and also fired at the police."

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Senior Superintendent of Police Dr. Anil Kumar told the media, "When the police arrived, the accused locked the children in a room of the house and threatened to shoot the police and the family members. He shot his son and started firing at the police. The police retaliated to protect the children and in self-defense. The injured accused and his son died in the hospital."

What is the whole matter?

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According to Azamgarh Police, Arvind Singh reached his home at around 6 pm on Tuesday evening.

At that time puja was going on in the house. Apart from his wife Babita Singh, two priests were also present there.

Azamgarh Additional Superintendent of Police, Rural, Chirag Jain told BBC News Hindi, "The villagers told us that Arvind was upset for the last two-three months. He had become irritable and was fighting. He was mentally disturbed and was also undergoing treatment. For this reason, his wife was performing a five-day puja at home."

He told, "On the fourth day, what suddenly came to his (Arvind Singh's) mind that he started asking the Pandits, who are you, where have you come from? He started abusing them. When his wife tried to stop him, he fired at her. When the Pandits tried to stop her, they fired at him too. One Pandit ran away by jumping over the wall."

According to the police, the deceased priests have been identified as Mahendra Pathak and Akhilesh Mishra.

After killing three people, Arvind went into a room of the house with his three children and locked the door from inside.

On receiving the information, a large number of police forces reached the village and surrounded the house but they were not ready to come out of the room. This standoff went on for a long time.

After this, Arvind Singh died in the firing between Arvind Singh and the police.

The priest told the whole story to BBC

Along with priest Akhilesh Mishra, his son Himanshu Mishra was also involved in the religious rituals. Himanshu Mishra saved his life by running away.

He told that this religious ritual was Gayatri Jaap.

Himanshu Mishra told BBC News Hindi, "It was a five-day ritual. It went smoothly for three days but the incident happened on the fourth day. He (Arvind Singh) did not have even one percent interest in this puja. He did not even allow his wife to sit in the puja."

In response to how he saved his life, Himanshu Mishra told BBC News Hindi, "That day, we were about to get up after doing puja, he (Arvind Singh) immediately came. As soon as he came, he asked who are you people? How did you come to my house? My father said - your mother has called. He said how did you come without my permission?"

"He again said, show us the Aadhaar card. Then Papa said that we cannot tell who we are from our attire. If we bring the Aadhaar card tomorrow then we will see. By then, he brought a stick and attacked. When his wife, niece and mother came to save him, he took out his revolver and opened fire. The first bullet hit his wife Babita Singh."

Himanshu told BBC News Hindi, "The other priest Mahendra Pathak tried to run away but he shot me from behind. My father (Akhilesh Mishra) was shot but the bullet missed his head. I jumped over the wall and ran away. He went again and shot my father in the head."

Eyewitness villager Harishankar Yadav was present at the man's house when the police action took place.

He told BBC News Hindi, "When I reached around 8 o'clock in the night, there were more than two hundred police present there. Captain Saheb was also engaged in the operation. We all were about forty meters away from the police. We could not hear what was going on between the police and him (Arvind Singh), but at least 25-30 bullets must have been fired."

What has happened till now?

This incident took place at around 5 pm on Tuesday evening in Shambhupur village of Azamgarh. Azamgarh Police had received information about this incident on police helpline number 112.

Additional Superintendent of Police Chirag Jain told BBC News Hindi, "We received this information at Ahraula police station and 112 that three murders had taken place in Shambhupur village. At around 6.30 the station in-charge had reached the spot. At 7 o'clock the area officer had reached the spot and by 8.30 the SSP, DIG and ADG had reached the spot."

Police say that Arvind Singh was appealed to surrender for several hours, but he did not agree. He kept threatening to kill the children.

How long did this standoff last and under what circumstances did Arvind's minor son (Shaurya) die?

Chirag Jain told, "The police and the people of his neighborhood explained that he should surrender but he was repeatedly threatening. Suddenly there was a sound of gunshot from inside, then two SOG members and the SSP broke the door and entered inside under the cover of the bed. From there he fired, the police retaliated in which he got injured."

Was the help of commandos also taken in this operation?

Chirag Jain said, "Commandos were called for this operation but they did not go inside."

Bajrangi Pathak, nephew of deceased priest Mahendra Pathak, told BBC News Hindi, "I was attending a ritual when the incident happened. I got a call that your uncle has been shot, we reached there after some time. When we reached, Arvind was locked in the house and the police were also present."

"My uncle was hit by a bullet in his head. He died on the spot. The bullet hit him from behind in the head."

According to the police, the post-mortem of all the five deceased has been done.

Varanasi Additional Director General of Police Naveen Arora told the media, "Despite all our efforts, he (Arvind) was neither ready to leave the house, nor was he ready to leave the children outside, we talked to the police officers but every time his answer was that the children are with us and there is a shield, you guys go back, after a limit of seven hours had already passed, then what we did was that at least we would keep the cordon." If he tries to run away."

He said, "Our preparations were going on when a gunshot was heard from inside and after that we had no option because there were three children inside and a fire meant that anything could happen."

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