Unrest In UP Town After 19-Year-Old Killed During Cattle Smugglers' Raid

Lucknow:

A village in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur is on edge after a 19-year-old student was killed during a cattle smugglers' raid to steal animals.

Deepak Gupta, who was preparing for the medical entrance exam NEET, lived at Pipraich in Gorakhpur district. According to local residents, cattle smugglers in two vehicles sneaked into the village around 3 am today. They entered cattle sheds, untied the animals, and started loading them onto their vehicles. Someone raised an alarm, and the residents, including Deepak, stepped out of their homes and started chasing the cattle smugglers.

As the smugglers got into their vehicles and started fleeing, Deepak followed one of them. The cattle smugglers pulled him into their vehicle and beat him up. He was later found dead, with a serious head injury, about 4 km from his home.

While local residents claimed he was shot dead, police have said the wound does not appear to have been caused by a bullet and Deepak may have suffered the injury after he was pushed off the vehicle.

Enraged by the young man's death, local residents stopped one of the vehicles belonging to the cattle smugglers and set it on fire. They also thrashed an occupant that they managed to catch. The other vehicle escaped.

Two police officers -- Additional Superintendent of Police (North) Jitendra Srivastava and Piprachi Station House Officer Purushottam were injured when they tried to take the cattle smuggler into custody.

This morning, residents of Pipraich blocked the road to Gorakhpur and staged a demonstration, demanding swift action against those responsible for the student's death. About six hours into the demonstration, senior cops managed to convince the protesters to clear the road, and traffic movement was restored.

Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar said, "Around 3 am, cattle smugglers came to the village in two vehicles. One of the vehicles got stuck in the village, and the occupants fled. When the other vehicle was escaping, a young man chased it. He was later found dead. We have sent the body for a post-mortem. Some people are saying he was shot, but prima facie, we have not found this to be true. We have deployed teams to catch those involved. The villagers caught one cattle smuggler and he is injured," the senior officer said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked police officers to take strict action against the guilty.