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Ajay Uprety
Ajay Uprety

law and order

Ending goonda raj: Encounter killings in UP go up after Yogi takes charge

USA-GUNS/ (File photo) Representational image

The Uttar Pradesh police appears to have taken an aggressive stance against anti-social elements in the state if the spate of encounter killings in the past few months is anything to go by.

The state police have, in the recent months, gunned down as many as nine criminals who were carrying rewards ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 on their heads. The cops have stepped up the operations against goonda elements in the state after the state government, led by Yogi Adityanath, came under opposition attack over the failing law and order situation in the country.

A cornered chief minister made a slew of changes in the police department and brought in ADG (Meerut zone) Anand Kumar to Lucknow and appointed him as additional director general (law and order UP). Adityanath had also appointed Sulkhan Singh, reputed to be an upright officer, as the DGP.

Soon after taking charge, Kumar asked his juniors to prepare a comprehensive list of notorious criminals in every district of the state. Later, all the district police chiefs were summoned to the DGP office and were given a deadline to eliminate these dreaded criminals.

In the past three months, according to official figures, the state police have nabbed a record 700 criminals, who carried a reward of Rs 10,000 or more on their heads. According to Kumar, the stern action against criminals came after the cops were asked to step up and end the goonda raj in the state.

On July 29, the cops gunned down two notorious criminals in the village Bhura of Kairana, who had carried a reward of Rs 25,000 each on their heads. A few days later, a sharpshooter for D-nine gang in eastern UP's Azamgarh, Jai Singh Yadav, was killed. Yadav had Rs 15,000 reward on his head.

On 11 August, Ikraf alias Tola was killed on Delhi-Kairana bypass in western UP while his accomplice Monu was arrested.

Now, the UP police is concentrating its energies on notorious criminals in the state Like Yogesh Bhadora, Udham Singh, Mukeem Kala, Billu Dujana. Fearing for their lives, some of these gangsters have surrendered in the neighbouring states—Dujana had surrendered in Delhi last month.

In order to effectively deal with the anti-social elements in the state, the police had adopted many measures, including identifying and micro-monitoring of top criminals, preparing SWAT teams, training police commandos in every district, strengthening local intelligence and deploying cops who had experience in dealing with hardened criminals.

The cops have been following the CM's orders and going tough against the criminals; but will this move boost the image of state police which is plagued by the malady of corruption? Only time will tell.

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Topics : #Uttar Pradesh | #crime

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