Man kills villager who mistook him for thief in Etah

AGRA: A 38-year-old man has been arrested in Etah district for allegedly shooting dead a villager who mistook him for a thief and confronted him while he was moving around the area at night, police said Saturday.

The victim, Ashish Singh of Sadarpur village under Aliganj police station limits, was shot on June 9 and later died. Police identified the accused as Kishore Singh, a resident of Amroli village who worked as a salesman at a liquor shop. Police found that Kishore had been in contact with a woman from Sadarpur and had allegedly gone to the village to meet her on the night of the incident. Additional SP Shwetabh Pandey said the accused spoke to the woman over WhatsApp a day earlier and reached the village after closing the liquor shop.

Pandey said Kishore had earlier been caught by villagers in Sadarpur while allegedly meeting another woman and was beaten up. Following that incident, he allegedly began carrying an illegal countrymade pistol for protection. “Despite repeatedly calling her and knocking on her door, he received no response. Ashish had taken his wife, who is specially abled, to nearby fields and was returning home. He noticed a suspicious person, stopped the stranger and raised an alarm, suspecting him to be a thief,” Pandey said