He had over 20 cases of heinous crimes pending against him, and was killed in a joint operation carried out by the Special Task Force (STF) and the district police.
"Acting on a tip-off, when the STF team tried to intercept Shanu and his aide, who were in a car. The duo started firing at the STF sleuths. In retaliatory firing, Shanu was gunned down, but his aide managed to escape," inspector Kanchan Kumar told reporters here, some 80 km from Lucknow.
"A pistol and several live cartridges have been recovered from Shanu's possession. Efforts are on to nab his aide," he added.
According to police, Shanu primarily operated in eastern Uttar Pradesh and had links with criminals in Bihar, Uttarakhand and other states.