Bhopal hostage accused paraded by cops; women thrash him with slippers

Bhopal: Police on Saturday paraded a man through the area in Bhopal where he had held a woman captive at gunpoint for more than 12 hours demanding that she marry him, as women bystanders angry over the hostage crisis assaulted him with slippers.

Rohit Singh, 30, on Friday barged into the fifth-floor apartment of the 26-year-old woman in Misrod area of Bhopal. He had held the woman, a professional model, hostage at gunpoint. She was rescued on Friday late evening by the police.

On Saturday, the woman told reporters that she did not want to marry the man and urged authorities to put him in jail fearing he would again attempt to harm her. Misrod Police Inspector Sanjeev Chouse told PTI that Singh was presented before the court of judicial magistrate Ashish Parsai, who remanded him to one-day police custody.

Before being produced in the court, Singh was paraded in Misrod area, where the hostage crisis took place, Chouse said.

Witnesses said Singh was also assaulted by women as he crossed the area under police custody. Chouse said Singh, who claims to be an assistant casting director, has been charged with attempt to murder and other offences under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The woman is undergoing treatment at a hospital for injuries suffered during the crisis. She told reporters that she wanted him to be given death penalty.

"Rohit should be hanged," she told reporters. "Initially, he did not bother me. He started troubling me in Mumbai - asking me to marry him - since November. On Friday, he forced me to sign a stamp paper stating that I will marry him. I don't want to marry him. Send him to jail or he will kill me," she said.

Inspector Chouse said Singh had inflicted injuries on the neck of the woman with scissors. Singh has told police that he would have shot her dead had she not promised to marry him and then would have committed suicide, Chouse said.

"A firearm with one bullet and the pair of scissors have been recovered from him," Ghouse said. The hostage crisis ended at around 7 pm after police managed to convince Singh to release the woman on the promise that he would not be harmed, according to police.

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Chouse said police, perched on a hydraulic ladder, succeeded in convincing him after a face-to-face talk through a window. Singh had entered the woman's home during the morning hours when her father had stepped outside to buy milk.

Later, he took her inside a room and bolted it from inside, police said. He then recorded a video and sent it to a TV journalist, saying the woman's family were opposed to their marriage. The video showed the woman on bed with blood-stains seen around the room.

Shortly after, police and media reached the area. Singh, who hails from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, spoke to media persons and police through video calls, saying he wanted to marry the woman and would kill himself if she refused. The woman's family had filed a complaint against Singh a few months ago, police said.