Two wanted criminals, including one with a Rs 1 lakh reward for information on him, were killed on Sunday in separate encounters by police in Uttar Pradesh.
In Noida, Shravan Chaudhary succumbed to the injuries he sustained during an encounter with the police. An AK-47 rifle was found with him. The Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police had announced rewards of Rs 50,000 each for information about him.
In Saharanpur, a man named Salim, who had a Rs 25,000 bounty on his head, was killed in an encounter. One person from the police force was injured and is in hospital, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad Police claimed on Sunday it had arrested 182 wanted criminals in the last 24 hours. Of these, 81 were wanted in cases involving heinous crimes, the district police said.
The two deaths took the toll of criminals allegedly killed in police encounters to 45 since the Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in the state in March 2017, according to The Indian Express. Chief Minister Adityanath has earlier said that criminals “who want to disturb peace of the society and believe in the gun, should be given an answer in the language of the gun itself”.
In November 2017, the human rights body had sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over Adityanath’s alleged endorsement of encounter killings in the state.
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