Lucknow, January 25: The Uttar Pradesh state police – under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – recorded more than 3,000 encounters and gunning down at least 78 criminals. The official data was released by the state government, informing that these encounters took place in the first 16 months of the Yogi Adityanath government, i.e. between March 2017 and July 2018.

According to reports, the figures of encounters and arrests would be publicised as a list of government achievements on Republic Day in the state. To publicise the message, UP Chief Secretary Anup Chandra Pandey had sent the communication to all districts magistrates, stating that the data – ‘in question’ – to be disseminated on Republic Day, reports Indian Express. Yogi Adityanath Announces Pension For Sadhus in Uttar Pradesh, Opposition Calls it 'Appeasement Move’ Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

In the letter sent to the district magistrates, it says the police department ran a statewide campaign to arrest wanted criminals for effective control on crime. If data are to be believed, the police teams engaged in 3,026 encounters till July 2018. Among these, 69 criminals were gunned down, 7,043 criminals were arrested, and 838 criminals sustained injuries. It also states that 11,981 criminals’ bail got cancelled and they surrendered in courts. Further adding, the letter says that the State Task Force (STF) gunned down nine other criminals and arrested 139 others.

With the data in place, in 16 months, the UP police undertook six encounters every day and arrested 14 criminals. Along with this, on an average around four criminals were killed every month. The data also states that 17 criminals were killed in the first nine months – till December 15, 2017. But the figure rose in multiple folds in the next seven months, where 61 criminals were killed in the encounters between the period of January 2018 and July 2018.

The data released by the state government is not new. Earlier in 2018 too, a similar letter was sent to all districts magistrates for highlighting during the 2018 Republic Day programme. In the previous circular, the UP Police had stated that it had killed 17 criminals and arrested 109 criminals until December 13, 2017.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 25, 2019 09:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).