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Bareilly: In a bizarre incident in the Bhamora police station area, in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh thieves who attempted to steal buffaloes were caught by villagers, and when surrounded by angry villagers, they themselves called the police for rescue.
The situation unfolded when the villagers of Gaushganj caught two thieves who had entered the village to steal. Fearing for their lives, one of the thieves dialed 112, the emergency police number, pleading for help. Responding to the distress call, a Police Response Vehicle (PRV) was dispatched to the scene. Upon arrival, the police found the thieves in the grip of an irate mob.
The crowd was so large and hostile that the PRV officers had to call for additional support from the Aliganj police station. By the time backup arrived, the villagers had already captured two of the thieves and subjected them to severe beatings.
The situation escalated further when another thief was apprehended later in the night, only to meet the same fate at the hands of the villagers. All three thieves, reportedly from a different district, were eventually rescued by the police and taken into custody for interrogation.
The Incident:
The incident began earlier that night when eight buffaloes belonging to Ramshevak Pal were stolen from his cowshed. Pal, upon discovering the theft around 1 AM, raised an alarm, waking the villagers. Armed with sticks, they began searching the area and soon heard noises coming from a nearby sugarcane field. Suspecting the thieves were hiding there, the villagers encircled the field, leading to the confrontation.
During the chaos, two of the stolen buffaloes were recovered from the field. The thieves, realizing they were trapped, made the desperate call to the police for their safety. Before the Bhamora police could arrive, the Aliganj police had reached the site, only to find the thieves being beaten by the furious villagers.
The Bhamora police eventually managed to take control of the situation and brought the three captured thieves to the police station. In the process of rescuing the thieves, several police officers were injured, some of them getting caught in barbed wire that surrounded the fields.
The incident has sparked anger among the villagers, who accused the Aliganj police of colluding with the cattle theft gang. The villagers also expressed their frustration over the delayed response from the Bhamora police, and tension remains high in the area following the theft.
