The prime accused in the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Bulandshahr was killed in an encounter in the Gulaothi area in the early hours of Sunday, barely 24 hours after police announced a reward of ₹50,000 for information leading to his arrest, officials said.
The accused inflicted multiple injuries on the girl’s face, shoulders, hands, abdomen, chest and legs. Her body was recovered late Saturday evening after local residents spotted it and informed police, officials said.
SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh said a joint team of the SWAT and local police was conducting checking in the Gulaothi area around 4 am on Sunday when they attempted to stop two men travelling on a motorcycle without a number plate.
“The suspects opened fire at the police team. In the retaliatory firing, Monu sustained bullet injuries. He was taken to hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” the SSP said.
A second suspect accompanying Monu escaped under the cover of darkness, Singh said, adding that teams were conducting a combing operation to trace him.
According to officials, SOG sub-inspector Sandeep Kumar and constable Narendra Kumar also sustained bullet injuries to their hands during the exchange of fire, while bullets also struck the bulletproof jackets of inspectors Shailendra Kumar of Sikandrabad and Dharmendra Sharma of Gulaothi, who escaped unhurt.
Police recovered a pistol, two magazines, cartridges and the motorcycle without a number plate from the encounter site.
According to reports, the girl, a Class 4 student and resident of the Kakod area, had left her house around 3 pm on August 1 for some work but did not return. Her family searched for her at several places before her body was found near Vair railway station on Saturday night.
Police said CCTV footage from the area showed the accused taking the girl away. The footage helped investigators identify Monu and led to the formation of teams to track him down.
After the recovery of the girl’s body, SSP Dinesh Kumar Singh and local MLA Lakshmi Raj Singh visited the victim’s family and assured them that the accused would be arrested at the earliest.
The police intensified the search following the identification of the suspect, while ADG Bhanu Pratap on Saturday announced a reward of ₹50,000 for information leading to his arrest.
