UP hostage taker shot dead: 20 children rescued

Lucknow, Jan 30: Over 20 children who were held hostage by a man at his house in Uttar Pradesh have been rescued. The hostage-taker Subhash Batham has been shot dead.

The killing of Batham was confirmed by Mohit Agarwal, the IG, Kanpur. Batham invited some children from the village to his house on the pretext of celebrating his daughter's birthday.

However, once they were inside, he held everybody including his own wife and daughter at gunpoint.

During the negotiations, Batham told the police that he has 30 kilograms of explosives.

The police said that Batham had sent out a typed complaint addressed to the district magistrate in which he said that he was denied a house and a toilet under the Central Housing scheme for the poor. This indicates that the act was a well planned one, the police also said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had monitored the situation in Farrukhabad, which is nearly 200 km from state capital Lucknow.