183 criminals eliminated in police encounters since March 2017: UP Police

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday said that they have gunned down 183 alleged criminals in encounters in the six years of the Yogi Adityanath government. This included gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad’s son Asad and his accomplice, who were killed in an exchange of fire in Jhansi.

The UP Police data showed that more than 10,900 police encounters have taken place in the state since March 2017, when Adityanath took over as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. In these encounters, 23,300 alleged criminals were arrested and 5,046 were injured.

Also read: ‘Mitti me mila dunga’ trends on Twitter after Atiq’s son killed in police encounter

13 cops killed in encounters

As per the data, 13 policemen were killed and 1,443 were injured in these encounters. Of the 13 killed, eight were ambushed in a narrow lane of Kanpur by the aides of Vikas Dubey, a notorious gangster. Dubey was shot dead by police when he tried to escape while being brought to UP from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Police said Dubey’s vehicle had overturned during the transit and he had snatched a cop’s gun.

However, the critics of the government and Opposition parties have alleged that many of these encounters were “fake” and demanded a high-level probe to bring out the facts. The UP government and the police have denied these allegations and said law and order has improved since the BJP came to power in 2017.

The demand for a thorough probe was most recently raised by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati after Asad and his aide Ghulam were shot dead in Jhansi on Thursday. Both Asad and Ghulam were wanted for the daylight murder of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the killing of then BSP legislator Raju Pal in 2005, and his two security guards in Prayagraj in February this year.

SP targets Yogi Adityanath

Meanwhile, in a fresh development, the SP on Friday released a list on Twitter, asking whether those on it were close to Adityanath. It alleged everyone on the list “belonged to the chief minister’s caste and so were alive and running criminal gangs”.

The party’s media cell tweeted, “Are these special to Yogiji? Actually, they all belong to the same caste as that of Yogiji. Hence, they are still alive, committing crime, running the gangs, and indulging in murder, rape, loot, robbery and extortion.”

Also read: Asad’s encounter: UP Opposition wants high-level probe

The list contained the names of several politicians with the alleged number of cases registered against them. Among them were Kuldeep Singh Sengar (Unnao, 28 cases), Brijesh Singh (Varanasi, 106 cases), Dhananjay Singh (Jaunpur, 46 cases) and Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias “Raja Bhaiyya” (Pratapgarh, 31 cases).

Some activists too have raised questions over the high number of police encounters in the state. “We are of the view that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has some guidelines on police encounters. And there should be a magisterial probe as per the guidelines of the NHRC. It will make the picture clear,” said Lenin Raghuvanshi, the founder-convener of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights.

(With Agency inputs)