‘UP Police has incorporated a policy of zero-tolerance against mafia and gangsters in the state’.
NEW DELHI: Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed’s son, Asad, wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, was gunned down by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force on Thursday in an encounter in Jhansi, taking the total number of dreaded gangsters killed in encounter by the UP Police to 182 in the last six years.
According to data from the UP Police, between March 2017 to April 2023, 182 alleged gangsters or criminals have been killed by the UP Police in encounters. This period also coincides with the time the Yogi Adityanath government took over the helm of UP after being elected to the legislative Assembly in 2016.
The highest number of encounters of alleged criminal/criminals have been reported from Meerut, where 64 people allegedly involved in the world of crime have been killed in police action. This was followed by Varanasi, where 20 such alleged criminals were killed in police action and in Agra, 14 such incidents of police encounter were reported.
The data suggests that between 2017 to April 2023, every year, the UP police has taken down 30 alleged criminals or gangsters in police encounters, further stating that every month, UP witnessed at least two encounters.
UP Police’s Special DG Law and Order Prashant Kumar said that the UP Police has incorporated a policy of “zero-tolerance” against mafia and gangsters in the state to improve the law and order situation in the state.
The same period also saw more than 1,400 people or alleged criminals being injured in police action in UP. The highest number of injured in police action has been reported from Meerut, where more than 1,700 people or alleged criminals have been injured in police action. This is followed by Noida or the Gautam Budh Nagar Police Commissionerate where more than 700 people or alleged criminals have been injured in police action, in the last six years. The most recent encounter of the UP Police is of gangster turned political of the Samajwadi Party Atiq Ahmed’s son. Asad and his accomplice Ghulam who were wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case and had a bounty of Rs five lakhs on their head. Asad’s father Atiq Ahmed is already in the UP police’s custody for the same murder case and when the encounter was happening, Atiq was being produced in a local court in UP.
Both Atiq and his accomplice Ghulam were killed while they were allegedly trying to flee to Madhya Pradesh. According to UP Police, Asad was continuously changing his location within UP and had made plans to flee to the neighbouring state on a bike, when they were intercepted. Asad was reportedly in a disguise and had sophisticated weapons with him. They had allegedly engaged with the police by firing shots and the UP Police team had fired 42 rounds, after which Asad and Ghulam succumbed to their injuries.
The UP Police shot to fame for its “infamous” encounter of the alleged dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey in 2020. The incident happened in Kanpur when Vikas Dubey was being taken from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh to Kanpur. The police vehicle in which Dubey was being taken had allegedly overturned and the gangster tried to escape firing shots from an allegedly snatched gun from the police personnel, after which he had to be shot by the UP Police.
This was followed by the 25 July 2020, encounter of alleged gangster Tinku Kapala who had a bounty of Rs one lakh over his head as he was wanted in multiple criminal cases across UP.
Then in February 2021, Moti Singh, accused of allegedly murdering a police constable and injuring a sub-inspector, was killed in a police encounter. UP’s capital city of Lucknow also witnessed an encounter in 2021 when a Bangladeshi criminal Hamza was gunned down by the UP Police’s STF in a heated exchange of fire.
Over the last six years, the UP Police have carried out 10,932 encounters, in which 23,348 people have been arrested and 5.046 alleged criminals were injured. To this, Special DG Law and Order of UP Police had earlier in the week said that the intent of the UP Police is not to kill, but to nab criminals.