Jeetendra Malik aka Jeetu Fauji, the army jawan who was arrested in connection with the killing of a police inspector during violence in Bulandshahr last Monday, denied his involvement in the killing, saying he was just an onlooker and had no firearm.

The development came on a day on which additional superintendent of police, rural, Bulandshahr, Raees Akhtar became the fourth police officer to be transferred as fallout of the December 3 incident.

Malik was arrested late on Saturday after a Special Task Force got his custody from the army in Jammu and Kashmir. A local court in Bulandshahr sent him into 14-day judicial custody.

An SIT officer interrogating him said Malik denied killing the inspector and asked why he would kill the cop whom he did not know.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Special Task Force, Abhishek Singh said Malik confirmed during preliminary interrogation that he was on leave and present in the village when the violence erupted after recovery of cow carcasses but denied any involvement in the violence.

The SSP said Malik, who was purportedly seen in a video opening fire during the violence that resulted in the killing of inspector Subodh Kumar, claimed he was just an onlooker and returned home after some time. He said he learnt about the firing through a villager over phone. Thereafter, he left the village and returned to duty.

The SIT officer said he did not have any firearm as was being claimed, and also denied knowing Sumit Kumar, the second person killed in the violence.

Malik’s lawyer Sanjay Sharma told HT he would move his client’s bail application on Monday.

The SIT will apply for his custody on Monday so that he can be questioned further, the officer said.

Principal secretary, home, (UP), Arvind Kumar said Raees Akhtar was transferred to the post of ASP, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) headquarters, in Lucknow.

Manish Mishra (a Provincial Police Service officer), who was serving as in-charge of the modern control room at Ghaziabad, replaces Akhtar, an IPS officer of the 2014 batch, he said.

The three other police officers shunted on Friday and Saturday were SSP Krishna Bahadur Singh, Syana circle officer Satya Prakash Sharma and Chingrwathi police outpost incharge Suresh Kumar.

Malik’s mother has said that she would kill him herself if it was proved that he had shot dead police inspector Subodh Kumar during the violence in Bulandshahr, as was claimed through some videos of the incident.

First Published: Dec 09, 2018 21:11 IST