MUZAFFARNAGAR/MEERUT: Police teams of
Meerut
and
Muzaffarnagar
shot dead western UP’s dreaded gangster Rohit Saandu and his three close aides in two separate encounters within a span of four hours on Tuesday, taking the death toll of criminals falling to police bullets to six in the region in the last five days.
At just 26, Saandu was facing over 40 criminal cases and was considered the youngest gangster of western
Uttar Pradesh. On July 2, Saandu had escaped the clutches of an escort team while in transit from Muzaffarnagar court to UP’s
Mirzapur
prison, where he was lodged. His associates, who had attacked the escort team at an eatery in Muzaffarnagar, also shot dead sub inspector Durg Vijay Singh.
Police had announced bounty of Rs 1 lakh on SaanduSaandu’s daring escape and the death of a police officer had stunned the entire UP police department. It had announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh on any information leading to his arrest.
Meerut zone ADG Prashant Kumar, who was present in Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday, said, “At 4:30 in the morning, one of our sub inspectors flashed an alert that four suspects on two motorcycles were going towards Mansoorpur from Bhopa area. Soon, reinforcement was sent and an encounter ensued. In the police’s retaliatory firing, two suspects were injured. They succumbed to their injuries at a hospital later.” ADG Kumar said that they were identified as Saandu and his friend Rakesh Yadav, a criminal from Ayodhya with over 12 cases registered against him. Wanted in several cases of murder, loot and extortion, Saandu was arrested in 2016. He was shifted to east UP’s
Faizabad
jail in 2017 and later to Mirzapur jail.
About four hours after the first encounter, gun shots again rang in neighbouring Meerut’s Daurala area and two more aides of Saandu were shot dead by police after an exchange of fire.
According to police, the criminals were cornered when a local police team was alerted of a carjacking incident in the area.
Ravinder alias Kalia and Sheru alias Amit fired at the police team which tried to intercept the SUV, the ADG said, adding that they were killed in retaliatory firing.
Ravinder and Sheru, criminals from
Haryana and Meerut respectively, were also close aides of Saandu and had helped him escape on July 2. With the Tuesday’s deaths, encounter toll in Meerut zone shot to six in the last five days. In UP, over 90 criminals have been killed in encounters since the Yogi Adityanath government took over the reins of the state in March 2017. At 53 deaths, Meerut zone accounts for more than half of encounter deaths.