Lucknow: Police in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have gunned down 210 criminals in the last five months, top officials said on Monday.
The 210th "kill" was 22-year-old Ramesh Chandra Pandey, who faced charges in several cases, including murder and extortion, and was gunned down here on Sunday, said Principal Home Secretary Satish Kumar Agarwal and Director General of Police (DGP) Bua Singh.
The officials described the numbers as unprecedented and said that Pandey was a member of the Hanuman Shukla gang that had unleashed terror in large parts of eastern UP.
"The Shukla and other gangs known for monopolising multi-crore government contracts in departments of public works and irrigation were also responsible for retarding development in the economically backward eastern Uttar Pradesh," Agarwal said.
He denied that the 210 criminals gunned down by police had any political links.
"During the course of this drive, we have so far not encountered any kind of interference from any political quarter," the official claimed.
"We are determined to teach these criminals a lesson and we wish to send the message loud and clear that enough is enough," said DGP Singh.
When asked why police had failed to overpower or eliminate more wanted outlaws, who had been at large for decades despite declaration of huge cash rewards, Singh admitted, "We have not been able to track them down so far despite our best efforts. But we have not given up and hope to get them too."
The exercise was apparently undertaken as a key part of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government's image-building drive after it got considerable flak for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
Comments
0 comment