NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JAN 30
A murder convict who is out on parole is holding his wife, few women and over a dozen children as hostage in the basement of his house at Mohammadabad town in West Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad district. Police are currently negotiating with the convict, who has been identified as Subhash Batham. The hostage drama has been going on for the last two hours now.
According to police, the convict invited some children and women from the village to his house on the pretext of celebrating his one-year-old daughter’s birthday. However, once they were inside, he forced everybody, including his own wife and children to move to the basement at gunpoint.
When their children did not return after a while, some of his neighbours knocked at his door. They were forced to retreat and alert the police when Subhash Batham began shooting at them.
Police said that when they rushed a PCR van to his house, Subhash Batham began shooting at it from the terrace. He even threw a crude bomb at them. Commandos of the Anti-Terrorism Squad and a police team led by the Kanpur Zone Inspector General were subsequently deployed at the spot.
“We don’t want to enter into a shootout with the convict. We prefer constructive engagement. The village elders are at the spot, trying to negotiate with him,” a police officer at the scene said. Further details are awaited.