A man in Noida Sector-122 was shot at by a sub-inspector of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday leading to the suspension of four policemen on Sunday, media reports said.

Two men in Noida Sector-122 were allegedly shot at by a sub-inspector of the Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday, leading to the suspension of four policemen on Sunday, media reports said. While one has sustained injuries on the leg, the other one is critically injured.

The family of one of the victims, Jitendra Yadav said that caste animosity might have been a cause behind the 'fake encounter', The Times of India reported. The family also alleged four boys were returning from Bahrampur at around 10.30 pm on Saturday when the police personnel stopped the vehicle and fired at one of them without any reason.

According to The Indian Express, the Uttar Pradesh police said that personal enmity and not encounter may have been the reason behind the attack. At a press conference, SSP Love Kumar said that the police condemns the incident and that a 'sub-inspector is not expected to do such a thing.' There have been reports of about 15 police shootouts from 10 districts of the state in 48 hours.

The 4 policemen have been suspended with immediate effect. We have seized service revolver of the sub-inspector who fired the gun shots and sent him to jail: SSP Love Kumar on man shot at by police in Sector 122 in Noida last night. His family alleged this was a 'fake' encounter pic.twitter.com/c8oDy6HTfX — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 4, 2018

On Friday, two suspected criminals and as many policemen, including a station house officer, were injured in an encounter in Gorakhpur. The incident took place when Maneesh Yadav and Manoj Yadav were escaping after threatening a village head. Police said that a team was rushed to the spot after the victim informed that he had been threatened by two people.

In the encounter, Station House Officer, Khorabar, Sudhir Kumar, and sub-inspector, Jhangha, Sunil Kumar Singh, suffered minor injuries, they said.

According to PTI, a gangster was killed and nearly two dozen criminals were arrested by police in 15 encounters in different districts of Uttar Pradesh in two days, a police spokesperson said on Saturday. The encounters took place in Bulandshahr, Shamli, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Lucknow, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Gorakhpur, Hapur and Meerut.

The Uttar Pradesh police has intensified its crackdown on criminals after the new DGP OP Singh took charge last month. Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath had vowed to take strict action against criminal elements after his government faced criticism over a string of crimes in the state.

According to NHRC data between 2000 and 2017, Uttar Pradesh accounted for an alarming 44.55 percent (794 cases) of fake encounter cases among 1,782 cases registered across all states.

With inputs from PTI