The Yogi government came to power in UP in March 2017 and carried out over 1,478 police encounters in the state between 20 March 2017 and 25 March 2018. The highest number of encounters happened in Meerut zone, 569. Bareilly zone is the next one with 253 encounters. Next one in the queue is the Agra zone where 241 encounters took place followed by Kanpur zone with 112 encounters.
The police even carried some live encounters in front on media, for the sake of transparency. When asked why journalists were invited to record the encounter, Aligarh SSP Ajay Kumar Sahini told TOI, “There is nothing wrong in it. We wanted to provide firsthand information to the media.” He also added, “We were just adopting a transparent approach. Nothing was hidden. If anyone wanted to click pictures or record a video, they were free to do that.”
Crime reached to new low after the pro-activeness of UP Police in first one and a half year. But, in the last one year, the crime is on the rise once again.
A few days ago, five criminals who had raped a girl in December 2018, have burnt the victim alive, who was on her way to Raebareli. According to doctors, 90 percent of the body of the victim has been damaged.
As per a report by Livehindustan, there have 86 incidents of rape in the last 11 months. Kuldip Singh Senger, who is member of legislative assembly from one of the constituencies of Unnao, is also facing charges of rape. Senger has also tried to threaten the victim and her families, few member of the victim’s family were also killed by Senger’s men.
As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Uttar Pradesh, with more than 3 lakh cases, accounted for 10.1 percent of total criminal cases of the country. The number of cases is one rise due to the lackluster attitude of UP administration in the last few months.
In June this year, the Rampur police successfully shot a dreaded criminal, who is now accused of abducting, raping and brutally murdering a six year old girl in the district. The offender, Nazil, has been shot in both the legs in an intense encounter with the police, led by encounter specialist, IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma, who is currently serving as the Superintendent of Rampur police.
The UP Police need few more officers like Ajay Pal Sharma, and the Yogi administration should give free hand to police to take action against the criminals.
UP has a formidable and coveted league of encounter specialists in Uttar Pradesh, which finds its roots to the formation of Special Task Force in Uttar Pradesh in 1997-98, when crime rate was at an all-time high in undivided Uttar Pradesh, and Kalyan Singh had just reclaimed power as Chief Minister. Following his nod to the scheme, the UP police, heckled and mocked for their lackluster attitude, soon became a household name, earned success with the encounter of notorious gangster Shri Prakash Shukla, shot dead on 22 September 1998 in a police encounter in Ghaziabad.
The administration needs to give free hand to Special task force to control the rising rate of crime. Yogi Adityanath government is known for fixing the law and order problem of the state, if the government loses its USP, the popularity of Yogi as well as that of BJP will decline in the state. UP will go for local elections by next year, if the government is not able to control law and order situation, the party will suffer a setback.