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MEERUT: Wanted criminals are on a surrender spree in UP, fearing police encounters that the force is becoming known for. According to data provided by UP DGP’s office, as many as 142 wanted or criminals with rewards on their heads have surrendered either within the state or outside from March 20, 2017, soon after the new state government took over, to January 31, 2018. Besides, there are 26 criminals who despite getting bail did not secure their release. Then, 71 are those who got their bail bond cancelled and went back to jail.

Notably, between March 20, 2017 and February 14, 2018, 1,240 encounters have taken place in the state, leading to 2,956 arrests. A total of 305 criminals were injured in the shootouts while 40 got killed. UP police also seized 169 properties worth Rs 147 crore that belonged to absconding criminals.

Speaking with TOI, UP DGP OP Singh said, “Police chiefs of all districts had been instructed to aggressively go against criminals. They were asked to prepare dossiers of all those offenders of law on whom either rewards had been announced or were at large. The results are unprecedented, because never in the past this kind of straight message was conveyed to those criminals and never before this message had so clearly gone down into the heart and mind of these outlaws that they will not be allowed to play havoc with the lives of common citizens come what may.”

The state police chief added, “If they are trying to go back into jails, we do not mind that because jail is only their rightful place and not outside of it. We have launched a multi-pronged attack on them. Be it policing or seizures of their properties. For instance, the number of criminals against whom Gangster Act has been invoked is also biggest so far – 169 whose properties worth Rs 147 crore have also been seized.”

Additional director general (law and order) Anand Kumar said, “This is the result of effective policing and the last time this kind of fear was seen among criminals compelling them to run towards jails was during the Kalyan Singh government in the early nineties. In fact, this one is a magnified version of that.”

Ever since crackdown on criminals began, several of them who had been absconding for years chose to surrender either before police or courts. For instance, Maange alias Vinay, main accused in the horrifying double murder of the mother and son that was caught on CCTV recently in Meerut , surrendered to the interstate cell of the Delhi police’s crime branch on February 2. Sources in the department had claimed that a massive manhunt had scared Maange who feared being killed in an encounter after bounty on him was raised to Rs 50,000. Similarly, a rewarded criminal Akhilesh Yadav who escaped police custody five years ago, surrendered in Mau district in November last year.

Buoyed by UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s unflagging stand that “encounters won’t stop in UP”, as the state police went ahead with the crackdown against criminals at full throttle, offenders came up with innovative methods to dodge the bullet.

A couple of days ago, two criminals with 8-9 cases each of murder and loot registered against them, went around their village in Kairana carrying placards that read, “We will not commit crime and will lead normal lives. Please forgive us.” Later, these two men, identified as Irshad Ahmad and Salim Ahmad who came out of jail on bail bond a month ago, also gave an affidavit to Shamli superintendent of police, pledging to lead a crime-free life.

Out of 142 surrenders across UP, the highest in a single district were 14 in Gautam Budh Nagar, followed by Shamli (11) and Muzaffarnagar (10). However, Bareilly zone topped the chart in terms of number of criminals who got their bails cancelled to take refuge in jail. Out of 71 such cases in UP, 39 were in Bareilly. Six criminals each in Azamgarh and Lucknow districts refused to come out of jail on bail.

Asked if the police department has compiled the number of surrenders during the previous regime, a senior police official, who did not wish to be named, said, “What we are witnessing now is incomparable to any of the previous governments. Since surrenders were not happening a dime a dozen, there was no pressure on cops to compile such numbers.”