Number of deaths since Adiyanath took over as CM has reached 35

In another encounter death, the Uttar Pradesh police have shot dead a wanted criminal in Shamli district. The accused, identified as Akbar, was shot near a temple in Kandhla kasba of Shamli and carried a bounty of ₹50,000. With this, the number of deaths in police encounters in the State since the Yogi Adityanath government took over last year has reached 36.

More than two dozen encounters have taken place in Uttar Pradesh over the last 72 hours, resulting in two deaths and around 35 arrests across the State.

The spurt in the alleged police encounters comes after Mr. Adityanath on January 30 in a meeting of all district police chiefs instructed them through video conferencing to correct the law and order situation in their areas “at any rate.”

The meeting was held soon after Mr. Adityanath asserted in the context of the Kasganj violence that “there will be no place for anarchy or corruption in U.P. and the government will deal strictly with such elements.”

The State government has also reshuffled the police force, transferring 26 senior IPS officers and 46 Provincial Police Service officers — from the rank of ADG to DSP — in a span of 24 hours.

Following the trend over last year, a majority of police encounters over the last three days has taken place in western U.P. Four encounters were reported in Bulandshahr, three in Shamli, two each in Kanpur and Muzaffarnagar and one each in Hapur, Baghpat, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Kannauj and Chitrakoot.

In Chitrakoot on Saturday, the police arrested a sharpshooter of the Babli Kol dacoit gang in an encounter in the Jamunai forests. The accused Jiyalal Kol was injured in the encounter, a police spokesperson said. Kol carried a bounty of ₹25,000 and was absconding since the police encounter with dacoits in the same area last August in which one officer was killed and a constable injured.

In Saharanpur’s Gangoh area, the police arrested another alleged criminal and recovered a 12-bore country-made pistol from him after an encounter.

According to the police, the accused, Zulfam, who carried a bounty of ₹25,000, fired at the police team.

“When the police fired in self-defence, the criminal Zulfam was injured. His aide, however, managed to escape,” a police spokesperson said.

In Kannauj, two policemen were injured as the police nabbed another wanted criminal after a shootout in the Vishnugadh area. A 315-bore country-made pistol and one 32 bore pistol were recovered from the arrested accused identified as Aqeef. A resident of Aligarh, police said he had 29 criminal cases against him in six districts. Aqeef was injured in the incident and is receiving treatment in a hospital.

Two alleged criminals also received bullet injuries in Noida, while on Friday two police inspectors were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur’s Khorabar area where the police arrested two criminals carrying a joint bounty of ₹1 lakh. Both the accused were injured in the police firing. Identified as Manish Yadav and Manoj Yadav, they are accused of looting a hardware shop on January 28.

The U.P. police are also using social media to publicise the encounters. "Criminals can run, criminals can hide but it won’t be long before luck leaves their side!” tweeted the U.P. police from its official handle with the hashtag, 'SafeUP.'