Response comes after BSP chief Mayawati said the police were keeping criminals as ‘state guests’.

The Uttar Pradesh police have killed 103 suspected criminals in alleged encounters over a period of more than two years.

This was the claim made by the State police in response to taunts by Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati that the police in Uttar Pradesh were keeping criminals as “state guests.”

Ms. Mayawati on Friday, while hailing the police encounter of the four accused in the Hyderabad rape and murder case as “praiseworthy,” had called on the U.P. police to change and “take inspiration” from their counterparts in the Telangana capital.

“I want to tell the U.P. police that it should take inspiration from the Hyderabad Police and take tough steps. But what’s unfortunate is that be it in Delhi or U.P., the police keep most of the accused as sarkari mehmaan (state guests). I feel that is a thing of shame,” she said.

She went on to say that while rapes and molestation incidents against women had become “common” in entire U.P., the BJP government here was “ sleeping.”

In a response to this on Twitter, the State police claimed it had killed “103 criminals”, while 1,859 were injured in 5,178 “police engagements in the last more than 2 years,” which corresponds to the time period of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in U.P. since March 2017.

The police also said that 17,745 criminals surrendered or cancelled their own bails to go to jail during the period.

“Hardly state guests,” the U.P. Police said. “The figures speak for themselves. Jungle Raj is a thing of the past. No longer now.”

In the recent attack on the Unnao rape victim, all five accused have been arrested by police. The case would be taken up in a fast track court and severe punishment would be given to the accused, said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Meanwhile, the Safdarjung Hospital handed over the body of the deceased to the family on Saturday.