Vikas Dubey encounter | UP has recorded 119 police encounters during Yogi Adityanath’s rule: Report

Soon after Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yogi Adityanath had come to power in Uttar Pradesh, he had openly issued a death threat to “criminals” in a 2017 interview. The newly-elected Chief Minister had said: “Agar aparadh karenge, toh thok diye jayenge (if they commit a crime, they will be shot).”

It appears he stayed true to his words. With the encounter killing of dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey, the total tally of extrajudicial deaths in Uttar Pradesh since the time Adityanath has been in power rose to 119, as per an Indian Express report. There were 6,145 “operations” in the past three years, which ended in the encounter killing of 119 accused, while 2,258 others were injured.

As per Supreme Court guidelines, an FIR and a magisterial inquiry is a must in all encounter cases. However, in Uttar Pradesh, only 74 encounter killings underwent a magisterial probe. The court order read: “A magisterial inquiry must invariably be held in all cases of death which occur in the course of police action. The next of kin of the deceased must invariably be associated with such inquiry. In every case when a complaint is made against the police alleging commission of a criminal act on their part, which makes out a cognizable case of culpable homicide, an FIR to this effect must be registered under appropriate sections of the IPC.”

In December 2019, the UP Police had taken to Twitter to brag about the ‘thok do’ policy and written that 5,178 encounters had taken place in the state in the past two years, in which 103 criminals died and another 1,859 sustained injuries. And to think that this went out in the same year that the Supreme Court had raised concerns about a spate of encounters in UP makes it all the more alarming.

The figures speak for themselves. Jungle Raj is a thing of the past. No longer now.

103 criminals killed and 1859 injured in 5178 police engagements in the last more than 2 years.
17745 criminals surrendered or cancelled their own bails to go to jail.

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Hardly state guests. https://t.co/3Tk8qFLtK3

— UP POLICE (@Uppolice) December 6, 2019