UP Police Guns Down Criminal In Late Night Encounter; At Least 22 Killed In Past Few Months

A criminal wanted in more than 13 cases across three states was gunned down in an encounter by Uttar Pradesh police last night.

The criminal, identified as Furkan, was killed near Boyvala village on the Meerut- Karnal Highway late last night, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Anant Dev told reporters, adding that he had a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head.

Sub-Inspector Adarsh Tyagi and constable Narender sustained injuries in the encounter that also left two of Furkan's associates, Rahul and Nadeem, injured, the SSP said. Both of them were arrested. Furkan was wanted in more than 13 cases in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, SSP Dev added.

The government is getting its act together on the law and order situation in the state with six hardened criminals having been gunned down in encounters with UP police in the past three weeks, the Economic Times had reported in August. According to the Times of India, the number has risen to 22 in the past few months.

Nearly 750 wanted criminals were arrested in UP between April and August, the newspaper had cited police officials as saying, following criticism of the law and order situation since Yogi Adityanath took over as Chief Minister in March.

The series of encounters started with Sharma’s team gunning down two wanted criminals, Naushad and Sarvar, on the night of 29 July. On 11 August, his team shot dead another criminal. A criminal named Sujit Singh, who escaped from a court hearing on 11 August was shot dead in Azamgarh a week later by Azamgarh police chief Ajay Sahni. On 3 August, his team had killed another wanted criminal, Jay Hind Yadav. On 16 August, the Muzaffarnagar police under Senior Superintendent of Police Anant Tiwari shot dead hardened criminal Nitin Babua.

With inputs from PTI