18 encounters in 48 hours in UP; about 950 encounters in less than a year

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police carried out at least 18 encounters in the last 48 hours, arresting 25 people on its wanted-list and killing one criminal with a 25,000 rupee reward on his head in Muzaffarnagar. Since the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government came to power in Uttar Pradesh in March last year there have been about 950 encounters in less than a year.

The special task force (STF) gunned down Indrapal – a native of Ghaziabad – in western UP’s Muzaffarnagar. He had 33 criminal cases pending against him. In another encounter on Friday in Gorakhpur, police arrested two wanted criminals who had a cash reward of Rs. 50,000 each on their heads. They have confessed to their role the murder of a businessman Dinesh Gupta last Sunday, police said.

Top police officers, including the newly appointed Director General of Police OP Singh said the police fires only in self-defence.

“Encounters keep happening because we have to catch criminals. Encounters happen because we fire in self-defence,” said Mr Singh at a recent press conference.