Amid allegations by the opposition parties that the Uttar Pradesh police's encounter spree was a 'cover' to hide their failure to nab the real culprits, statistics revealed that as many as 178 alleged 'criminals' had so far been killed in armed encounters with the police in the state since Yogi Adityanath took charge in 2017.
According to police sources, around ten thousand encounters had taken place between the police and the 'criminals' in the state in the past six years during which 178 ''dreaded criminals'' had been killed while 12 cops had also been martyred. Around five thousand 'criminals' sustained injuries during the encounters in the past six years.
As many as nine 'criminals' had been shot dead in encounters since January this year, sources said adding that over one thousand police personnel had sustained injuries in these encounters.
Sources said that over 20 thousand 'criminals' were arrested during the same period.
While the opposition leaders have accused the BJP government in the state of targeting only a particular community and turning a blind eye to the criminals who belong to the other communities, the state police have sought to refute the allegation and claimed that it did not act against criminals on the basis of their caste or religion.
Monday's killing of Vijay Chaudhary alias Usman, who was one the accused in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the murder of the then BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005, in Prayagraj in an encounter with the police was the latest in the state police's encounter spree.
While the police claimed that Usman was killed after the latter opened fire upon being challenged prompting the cops to fire back, his wife said that the police had ' 'picked up'' her husband from home in the morning.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday that the encounters showed that the state government was trying to 'hide' something. ''The witness who was killed in Prayagraj was a member of the BJP......a minister's name has also cropped up and it has been alleged that he (minister) had taken money,'' Akhilesh said in a Tweet.
Akhilesh's remarks came shortly after mafia don turned politician Ateeq Ahmed's sister alleged that a senior UP minister had taken a huge amount of money on loan from Ateeq and was now trying to implicate him in false cases after being asked to repay the loan.
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav had on Tuesday apprehended that the UP police could kill one of Ateeq's sons in an encounter in the next few days.