UP police: Criminal carrying a bounty of Rs 50, 000 has been shot in an encounter
The police, in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, have shot dead a man who they say was a wanted criminal, carrying a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head.
The encounter took place on Saturday, in which one policeman has also been injured.
"A criminal with the bounty of Rs 50, 000 on his head was killed in the incident... we chased him down after we got information of his presence in the area," the Meerut Superintendent of Police, Manzil Saini told news agency ANI.
Surjit, the alleged criminal, was accused of killing three members of a family and was planning to target another person, say police.
Reports suggest, Surjit had been giving police the slip since 2016, when he allegedly killed three of a family within a week. Police claimed, locals during investigations, said the killings were due to family rivalry.
Apart from the murder of three persons, Surjit was also wanted in ten other cases including extortion and kidnapping, say police sources.
The Uttar Pradesh police, since January has carried out at least 18 encounters and arrested 25 people on its wanted-list. In the first week of February, in a major breakthrough, the special task force gunned down Indrapal, in western UP's Muzaffarnagar. He had 33 criminal cases against him.
On February 15, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had told the state Assembly that his government will not spare criminals and police encounters won't stop. The chief minister, amid criticisms of fake encounters, told the opposition that a total of 40 criminals have been shot down in 1200 encounters in the state so far.