Police also said Subhash had meticulously planned the attacks and gathered knowledge of explosives and bomb-making from the Internet. (File/Express photo: Avaneesh Mishra)

Fatehgarh police on Saturday said that the 40-year-old murder convict, who had held 23 children hostage at Karthiya village in the district on Thursday night, had enough ammunition to fight with the police for several days.

Subhash Batham, who was out on bail, was shot dead at the end of the nine-hour hostage crisis. His wife, Ruby Batham, died later in hospital early Friday after she was assaulted by a mob of local residents, police had said. While none of the children held hostage suffered any physical injury, two policemen were injured as Batham detonated an explosive placed among a heap of bricks outside his house.

“At Subhas Batham’s house, the bomb disposal squad found 15 kg cylinder bomb, four big size crude bombs connected to wires, 135 hand grenade-type bombs, four medium crude bombs, one paint box bomb — yellow and grey, around 3 kg — bulb element, fuse, white tape, electric wires and battery. This was in addition to a .315 bore countrymade rifle and .315 bore countrymade pistol along with 11 empty cartridges and 20 live cartridges,” read a statement issued by the police on Saturday.

Police also said Subhash had meticulously planned the attacks and gathered knowledge of explosives and bomb-making from the Internet. He also extensively read about cases of children held hostage in other countries, police said, citing the search history of his smartphone. “From the search history of his cellphone, the surveillance team found that Subhash searched for bomb-making technology and incidents in foreign countries related to children being held hostage,” police said.

“It seems Batham had planned it for a month… He had studied in detail a similar case in 2004 in Russia where children were held hostage, besides some other similar cases,” Inspector General of Police (Kanpur Range) Mohit Agarwal said.

“He was in jail last time four months ago for robbery. It seems he had planned this there, learning details from other inmates. He collected arms and explosives with their help,” he added.

The construction of a toilet in his house just a few days ago made the police draw the conclusion that Subhash had planned to keep the children hostage for several days. Three FIRs have been registered against Subhash and his wife Ruby.

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