Following a clear message given by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to rein in criminals and improve law and order, the state police continued with its encounter offensive against dreaded gangsters and criminals in 2018.

With as many as four killed in last nine days, the number of gangsters and rewarded criminals killed touched 30 in nearly 940 encounters till Tuesday (January 9) and about 3,900 have been arrested state-wide since March last year, confirmed top UP police official.

"CM Yogi Adityanath had a clear message to us - do not favour, fear or work under any duress while dealing with crime and criminals and come what may, we must restore the confidence of public in state government and police," says Anand Kumar UP Additional Director-General of Law and Order.

Kumar said the state police continued with its "all-out offensive against criminals, which made many of them run for cover or forced to flee state to neighbouring states, of last year, and in the last nine days four have been gunned down.

"In the exchange of fire, a UP constable also lost his life. A young police constable, Ankit Tomar, who joined the force in 2011, lost his life in a gun battle in Shamli few days ago... Nearly over 100 have been arrested in the last nine days and the drive against criminals will get more intensive in the days to come." Senior cops of UP police also told Mail Today that the message from top, including the CM, is also linked to state projecting itself as a "safe destination" for the big investment meet in February.

CM Yogi and his cabinet colleagues are doing road shows across country to attract big corporate houses and potential investors and reaching out to foreign missions to invest in Uttar Pradesh. The first and most important question asked to the CM and his colleagues is: "Is UP safe for investment?" Faced with this situation, the government is all out to change the image as a "safe and secure investment destination".

The latest to fall prey to police bullets was Chunnu Sonker (carrying a cash reward of Rs 25,000 on his head), who was killed in the Azamgarh district in the wee hours of Tuesday.

Besides being wanted in over a dozen cases of loot and murder, Chunnu escaped police custody a few days ago along with the service revolver of a constable.

"We challenged him after getting information that he was hiding in a house in Baijahan village. He died in a crossfire and one of our constables received a shot in his hand," Azamgarh SP Ajay Kumar Sahni said. On January 2, a dreaded criminal Shabbir (carrying a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head) was gunned down.

The criminal had 69 different cases registered against him. The most successful day this year for the UP cops was the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 in which three criminals were killed.

Hassib (reward Rs 50,000) was killed in Meerut, Sonu (reward Rs 50,000) was shot dead in Bulandshahr while Shamim (Rs 50,000 in Delhi and `50,000 in UP) was gunned down in Muzaffarnagar.

Among over 100 arrested since January 1, the cops have netted eight wanted criminals till Tuesday. While seven have been arrested in Muzaffarnagar (cash reward of Rs 5,000 each), one criminal was arrested in Saharanpur.

Besides nearly 3,900 getting arrested since March till date, Kumar told Mail Today that nearly 112 have been booked under National Security Act and properties worth over Rs 1,000 crore belonging to nearly 126 criminals have been confiscated.

"The intensity of searches against criminals and their unlawful dealings, including illicit arms, liquor business and extortion rackets will continue in more aggressive manner," he says, hinting at worse days ahead for UP criminals.

Interestingly, in a 'relieving' trend witnessed by the police during this period, as many as 40 criminals cancelled their bail and went back to jail and over 80 criminals surrendered before the court in neighbouring states like Delhi, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Haryana.

The police offensive against criminals is state-wide, but mainly western UP districts and some districts of eastern and central UP are under police radar as most of the criminals are operating from these regions, say UP senior officials.

Asserting that the 'clean-up' will continue, Kumar told Mail Today: "District police chiefs and the cops in general have been given a free hand. They have also been given the authority to increase the cash reward on the criminals as per requirement. We once again assure that not a single criminal will be left behind."

There have been some murmurs about fake encounters, especially among the kins of those killed, but these claims are yet to be verified.