Lucknow encounter site where Sunil Sharma was killed in September. (File photo) Lucknow encounter site where Sunil Sharma was killed in September. (File photo)

In line with the Yogi Adityanath government’s tough stance against criminals, Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday conducted six encounters in the state in the last 24 hours, killing two miscreants. This takes the death toll of criminals allegedly killed in police encounters to 45 since March 20 last year. Twelve have been killed this year itself. In the criminal hotbed of Ghaziabad, police claimed that 182 criminals have been arrested in the past 24 hours.

Criminals, wanted for various crimes in Noida, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, and Muzzafarnagar, were tracked down in an operation launched by UP police on Saturday night. In Noida, one Shravan Chaudhary, wanted in murder cases, was shot dead after a brief gunfight on Sunday morning. He carried a reward of Rs. 1 lakh for his arrest. An AK-47 assault rifle and a 315. bore gun was found with him, police said.

The AK- 47 recovered by Noida police. (Source: UP Police/Twitter) The AK- 47 recovered by Noida police. (Source: UP Police/Twitter)

“A criminal wanted in a murder case in Delhi and Noida has died in an exchange of fire with Noida police in the morning. One AK-47 and one SBBL gun have been recovered from him,” office of DGP UP said.

In Saharanpur, a man identified as Salim died of bullet injuries while his accomplice managed to escape after an encounter with police. Salim carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh on his head. The police have recovered Rs 1 lakh, one motorcycle and a pistol from them. The SWAT team, comprising personnel of Sarsawa and Mandi police stations, spotted the gangsters coming on bike from Chilkana and flagged them down to stop, but, ignoring the signal, they opened fire on police.

Saharanpur SSP Babloo Kumar told ANI: “As soon as we were informed about the incident we started rigorous checking and barricading. During the encounter, one of our personnel also got injured and is being treated in a hospital. Criminal killed had been involved in various crimes previously.”

In Ghaziabad, police said they shot at a wanted thief Rahul and managed to injure him. A constable was also injured in the encounter. In another encounter in the same city, a man identified as Sonu, wanted in a murder case, who was carrying Rs. 25,000 on his head, was shot at and arrested.

The UP police have faced a lot of criticism in the recent past for the number of encounters in the state but the Yogi government has maintained its tough stand – “bandook ka jawab bandook se diya jayega”. In February last month, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had accused the opposition of sympathising with criminals, even as he declared in the state Legislative Council that police encounters in the state would not stop. Speaking in the House during the Zero Hour, Adityanath pointed towards the opposition and said everybody knew who gave patronage to criminals.

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