Sometimes the car, sometimes the bike overturned and the game was over, a look at the famous encounters from Asad Ahmed to Vikas Dubey

The arrest of five people accused of spreading communal tension and killing 22-year-old Ram Gopal Mishra in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, after an encounter on Thursday has once again drawn attention to the incidents of encounters carried out by the police under the Yogi Adityanath government. On October 13, during the Durga idol immersion in Bahraich, a dispute over loud music outside a place of worship of the minority community took the form of violence, in which a youth named Ram Gopal Mishra was shot dead. The police arrested five accused in this case after an encounter on Thursday and two of them were shot in the leg.

In recent times, incidents of encounters with the police in UP have been in the headlines and various opposition parties including the Samajwadi Party have also been raising questions about such incidents. Incidents of encounters with the police in Uttar Pradesh are not new, although some such incidents have remained in the minds of the people for a longer time than other encounters due to various reasons. Since the beginning of the second term of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on 25 March 2022, about 51 criminals have been killed in incidents of encounters with the police, some of the famous encounters of which are as follows-

1. Vikas Dubey – Gangster Vikas Dubey of Kanpur Dehat was shot dead in an alleged encounter with the Special Task Force on July 10, a few days after he killed eight policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, on the intervening night of July 2-3, 2020. The sensational encounter also made headlines for the police’s ‘vehicle toppled’ story. According to the police, the vehicle in which Dubey was being taken from Ujjain to Kanpur overturned after meeting with an accident. The accused then tried to ‘escape’ and was shot in retaliatory fire by the police.
2. Mangesh Yadav- Mangesh Yadav, a resident of Jaunpur, was killed in an encounter with the police in Sultanpur on September 5, 2024. Yadav, an accused in the robbery of jewelry wort jewelry crore from a bullion trader’s shop in Sultanpur, was killed in an encounter with the police, following which opposition parties, especially the Samajwadi Party, accused the police of being involved in the killing of people of a select ‘caste’ at the behest of the BJP government. However, the ruling BJP immediately denied this allegation. Soon after Mangesh’s murder, another accused in the same robbery case, Anuj Pratap Singh, was also killed in a police encounter. The opposition alleged that a ‘Thakur’ was killed in the encounter to ‘balance’ things.
3. Asad Ahmed- The death of Asad Ahmed, son of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, in an encounter caught everyone’s attention. Asad Ahmed and Ghulam were killed in Jhansi in April 2023. The UP STF had made every possible effort to catch Asad and Ghulam alive, who were fleeing on a bike in disguise. Asad was driving the bike and Ghulam, sitting behind, fired the first shot at the STF. Even after the warning, they did not listen and bullets were being fired from their side. Then what, the firing was answered with bullets. After 42 rounds of firing, three bullets came out of the guns of UP STF and pierced the chest of Asad and Ghulam. Both these notorious criminals fell to the ground along with the bike.

A reward of Rs 5 lakh was declared on Asad. Politicians took different views on his death in an encounter with the police. Some justified the action while some questioned it. Meanwhile, a look at the statistics showed that there were fewer deaths in encounters with the police in the second term of the Yogi government compared to the first term. During Yogi’s first term, 158 criminals were killed in encounters with the police.

Congress-SP raised questions on Bahraich’s encounter.

After the rally. Ter in Bahraich on Thursday, opposition parties Congress and Samajwadi Party targeted the BJP government in the state and questioned the authenticity of the police action. Addressing journalists in Lucknow, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned the working style of the state police and accused the BJP government of ‘maligning’ 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 at the BJP without naming anyone, he said, “This is a matter of a neneighboringistneighboringst know better than me that this incident (Bahraich violence) has been staged.” Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai said, “The authenticity of this encounter is doubtful like earlier encounters. These encounters seem to be mere show-offs to divert people’s attention.”