Wife of Farrukhabad hostage accused passed away this morning after she was beaten up by locals. According to reports, she was admitted to a local hospital in a critical condition. Her body has been sent for postmortem and the reason for her death would only be revealed after the autopsy report. The accused -- a murder case convict had held 23 children hostage since Thursday evening. He had invited the children to his place for his daughter's birthday party. He was killed by the police as the hostage situation ended. All 23 children were rescued safely by the cops.
The hostage drama began at Kasaria village in the afternoon and continued for about eight hours.
Commenting on the operation, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said, "The accused, identified as Subhash Batham was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely." A press conference to address the situation was held at 1:20 am.
"The accused had invited the children for the birthday party of his daughter and held them hostage. It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours," Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh said, adding that in the entire operation they had tried to "engage" the accused and were successful.
The accused had initially released a six-month-old girl by handing her over to his neighbour from a balcony.
Eyewitnesses said a restive crowd gathered outside the house where the children were kept with some women wailing and praying for their safe release.
The crowd broke open the door of the house to rescue the children, they said. As the accused opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot.
In the exchange of fire, the captor's wife was injured, but none of the children suffered any injury.
A man and two policemen also suffered bullet injuries.
The motive of the accused was not known immediately.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath monitored the situation in Farrukhabad, which is nearly 200 km from state capital Lucknow.
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