From Asad Ahmed to Vikas Dubey to Mangesh Yadav, list of prominent encounters in UP under CM Yogi's rule

Encounters in Uttar Pradesh:: The Uttar Pradesh government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against the mafias and gangsters in the state. The accused of the Bahraich incident, Sarfaraz alias Rinku, was injured in an encounter today (October 17). According to reports, another accused Mohd Talim was also injured during the encounter which was carried out by the Bahraich district police. Notably, Sarfaraz was planning to flee Nepal after committing the crime. 

In the past seven years, Uttar Pradesh recorded over 12,000 police encounters, in which 207 listed criminals were gunned down and 17 cops lost their lives. On an average, every 13th day, a listed criminal was eliminated in encounters between the period of March 20, 2017 and September 5, 2024.

Most of these criminals carried cash rewards ranging from Rs 75,000 to Rs 5 lakh for their arrest. 

Here’s the list of prominent encounters in Uttar Pradesh under CM Yogi Adityanath’s rule:

1. On July 10, 2020, gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter in Kanpur. The encounter broke out after a police vehicle carrying Dubey from Ujjain to Kanpur overturned and the gangster allegedly attempted to escape.
2. On July 25, 2020, gangster Tinku Kapala, who had a bounty of Rs 1 lakh on him, was killed in a joint operation by the UP Police and the Special Task Force in Barabanki.
3. On October 18, 2021, Bangladeshi gangster Hamza was killed in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh police in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar area.
4. On February 21, 2021, Moti Singh, accused of allegedly murdering a constable from the Sidhpura police station and injuring a sub-inspector in Kasganj earlier, was killed in an encounter by the state police.
5. On September 30, 2022, gangster Vinod Kumar Singh, with a bounty of Rs 1 lakh, was killed in an exchange of fire with the Jaunpur police.
6. On March 21, 2022, a criminal carrying a bounty of Rs 2 lakh, was killed in an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) in Varanasi (rural). Manish Singh, alias Sonu, had 32 cases against his name, including seven cases of murder, five of attempted murder and others of loot, dacoity and robbery.
7. On April 2023, Asad Ahmed, the son of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, and Ghulam, the son of Maksudan, wanted in the Umesh Pal murder case, were killed in an encounter with the UPSTF team at Jhansi. Both had a reward of Rs 5 lakh each on them.
8. In the Sultanpur robbery incident, the police arrested the criminals, and Mangesh Yadav was killed in an encounter and more than two and a half kilogrammes of gold have been recovered from the criminals. A war of words erupted between the Opposition and the ruling political party in Uttar Pradesh over the recent encounter of Mangesh in Sultanpur.

Caste breakdown of criminals killed in UP encounter

The data by the Uttar Pradesh police mentioned that, since 2017, the majority of those killed in encounters have been Muslims, Brahmins, and Thakurs. It added that of the 207 criminals killed, 67 were Muslims (including Atiq Ahmed's son Asad and shooter Usman Chaudhary), 20 were Brahmins (including Vikas Dubey and Amar Dubey), and 18 were Thakurs.

16 criminals from Yadav community were killed in encounters

Moreover, contrary to political allegations that the Yadav community were among the most targeted, the data also revealed that the Yadav community ranks fourth, with 16 Yadav criminals killed in encounters, including notorious criminals like Pankaj Yadav, who was killed in Mathura, and Mangesh Yadav, involved in the Sultanpur case.

Further, it also mentioned that among the total criminals killed in an encounter were 17 Gujaratis and Jats, 14 Dalits, 3 Scheduled Tribe (ST) members, 2 Sikhs, 8 criminals from other OBC groups, and 42 from other castes and religions

Deaths of gangsters Atiq Ahmed, Ashraf Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari 

On April 15, 2023, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead while they were taken to a hospital in Prayagraj amid police presence.

The killers of Atiq and Ashraf were armed with high-end 9mm Turkey Zigana pistols which is expensive and imported firearms.

On March 28, 2024, Mukhtar Ansari died of a cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda at the age of 63. A five-time MLA from the Mau Sadar seat has been behind bars in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab since 2005. Ansari had over 60 criminal cases pending against him. He was sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts in Uttar Pradesh and was lodged in the Banda jail.