Encounter of Asad Ahmed and Vikas Dubey
The incident of arrest of 5 people accused of spreading communal tension and murder of 22-year-old Ram Gopal Mishra in UP’s Bahraich after an encounter on Thursday has once again drawn attention towards the incidents of encounters carried out by the police during the Yogi Adityanath government. Has drawn. On October 13, during the immersion of Durga idol in Bahraich, a dispute over playing loud music outside the place of worship of the minority community took the form of violence, in which a young man named Ram Gopal Mishra was shot dead. Police arrested 5 accused in this case on Thursday after an encounter and two of them were shot in the leg.
51 criminals eliminated so far in CM Yogi’s second term
In recent times, incidents of encounters with police have been in the news in UP and various opposition parties including Samajwadi Party have been raising questions regarding such incidents. Incidents of encounters with police in Uttar Pradesh are not new, although some such incidents, for various reasons, remained in the minds of people longer than other encounters. Since the beginning of the second term of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on March 25, 2022, about 51 criminals have been killed in incidents of encounter with the police, some of the famous encounters are as follows-
- Vikas Dubey- Gangster Vikas Dubey was shot dead in an alleged encounter with the Special Task Force on July 10, a few days after the killing of eight policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, on the intervening night of July 2-3, 2020, in Kanpur Dehat. This sensational encounter also made headlines for the police story of ‘car overturned’. According to the police, the vehicle in which Dubey was being taken from Ujjain to Kanpur overturned after the accident. The accused then tried to ‘escape’ and was shot in retaliatory firing by the police.
- Mangesh Yadav- Mangesh Yadav, a resident of Jaunpur, died in an encounter with the police in Sultanpur on September 5, 2024. Yadav, an accused in the case of looting of jewelery worth Rs 1.5 crore from a bullion shop in Sultanpur, was killed in an encounter with the police, after which the opposition parties, especially the Samajwadi Party, accused the police of ‘selectively’ at the behest of the BJP government. Accused of being involved in the murder of people of ‘caste’. However, the ruling BJP immediately denied the allegation. Soon after Mangesh’s murder, Anuj Pratap Singh, another accused in the same robbery case, was also killed in a police encounter. The opposition alleged that a ‘Thakur’ was killed in the encounter to ‘balance’ things.
- Asad Ahmed- The death of Asad Ahmed, son of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, in an encounter attracted everyone’s attention. Asad Ahmed and Ghulam were killed in Jhansi in April 2023. UP STF had made every possible effort to capture alive Asad and Ghulam who were running away on a bike by changing their appearance. Asad was driving the bike and Ghulam sitting behind fired the first bullet at the STF. Even after warning, they did not agree and bullets were fired continuously from their side. Then what, the firing was responded to with bullets. After firing 42 rounds, three bullets came out from the guns of UP STF and pierced the chest of Ghulam along with Asad. Both of them along with the infamous bike were razed to the ground.
A reward of five lakh rupees was declared on Asad. Politicians took different stances on his death in an encounter with the police. Some people justified the action while others raised questions on it. Meanwhile, a look at the data revealed that there have been fewer deaths in incidents of encounter with the police in the second term of the Yogi government as compared to the first term. During Yogi’s first term, 158 criminals were killed in incidents of encounter with the police.
Congress-SP raised questions on Bahraich encounter
After the encounter in Bahraich on Thursday, opposition parties Congress and SP targeted the BJP government of the state and raised questions on the veracity of the police action. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, while addressing journalists in Lucknow, raised questions on the working style of the state police and accused the BJP government of ‘degrading’ the police. He said that whenever there is an investigation, action will be taken against the guilty policemen and they will go to jail. Pointing towards the BJP without naming anyone, he said, “This is a matter of the neighboring district. You would know better than me that this incident (Bahraich violence) has been organized.” Congress’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai said, “The authenticity of this encounter is doubtful like the earlier encounters. “These encounters appear to be mere stage actions to divert people’s attention.” (with language inputs)
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