183 criminals from various castes and religions were encountered in UP
On August 28, at Bharat Ji Sarafa in Thatheri Bazar of the Chowk area in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, ₹28 crores were looted in broad daylight. Fourteen accused were found to be involved in this case: Pushpendra Singh, Tribhuvan, Sachin Singh, Vipin Singh, Vinay Shukla, Ajay Yadav, Arvind Yadav, Vivek Singh, Durgesh Singh, Furkan, Anuj Pratap, Arbaaz, Mangesh Yadav, and Ankit Yadav. Vipin Singh, the mastermind behind the loot, who has 34 cases registered against him, surrendered in the Rae Bareli court. The police crippled three criminals involved in the incident after an encounter. Sachin Singh, Pushpendra Singh, and Tribhuvan alias Lala Harijan were sent to jail after receiving treatment. According to the police, one of the main accused involved in the incident, Mangesh Yadav (son of Rakesh Yadav, resident of Agaraura village, Baksh police station, Jaunpur), opened fire on the police. In defense, the police fired at Mangesh, who sustained injuries and died during treatment. Following this, several accusations were made against the state government, alleging that Mangesh Yadav was killed in an encounter because of his caste, while no such action was taken against others. Another allegation is that since CM Yogi Adityanath belongs to the Thakur community, no encounters of Thakurs take place.
Akhilesh Yadav, on his X account, “It seems that the ruling party had deep connections with the people involved in the Sultanpur robbery. That is why, before the fake encounter, the ‘main accused’ was contacted and made to surrender, while other people from the party were shot in the legs for show and killed based on their caste.”
Akhilesh further added, “When the main accused has surrendered, all the looted goods should be returned, and the government should pay compensation separately. The mental trauma caused by such incidents takes a long time to recover from, leading to a loss of business, which the government should compensate. Fake encounters turn protectors into predators. The solution is not fake encounters, but real law and order. Under BJP rule, criminals thrive. Until public pressure and anger reach their peak, the looting continues. When it appears the public will rise against them, fake encounters are staged as a superficial remedy. The public understands how some people are saved and how others are trapped. Totally reprehensible!”
The News18 tweet stated that Akhilesh Yadav referred to the Special Task Force (STF) as the Special Thakur Force.
Left journalist Rohini Singh asserted that the encounter of Mangesh Yadav should be thoroughly investigated by a committee. She raised several questions in her tweet, such as: Why are mafias of a particular caste never encountered? Why are criminals from other specific castes killed in encounters without being given a chance to surrender? Why are more than half the members of the UP STF from a particular caste? Why is the modus operandi of every encounter the same? How many encounters have taken place immediately after the announcement of a reward?
Samajwadi Party supporter and frequent fake news peddler, Surya Samajwadi, wrote, “If the criminal is a Thakur, he will be made to surrender with respect, but if the accused is a Yadav, he will be killed in an encounter. Casteist Adityanath should also admit this.”
Vinay Yadav wrote, “The mastermind of the Sultanpur loot case is Vipin Singh, an upper-caste Thakur, who was made to surrender by Yogi’s police, while his accomplice, Mangesh Yadav, an OBC, was killed by Yogi’s police in the name of an encounter. Why were Vipin Singh and other upper-caste criminals not killed in the encounter? Why was Mangesh Yadav, from a backward caste, killed?”
Advocate Rahul Yadav wrote, “Sachin Singh and Pushpendra Singh, accused of looting the Sultanpur jewellery shop, were arrested after being shot in the leg. Mangesh Yadav, accused in the same loot case, was killed in an encounter by casteist Yogi and his corrupt police. There were five Yadavs and five Thakurs in the police who carried out this encounter.”
The Samajwadi Party media cell stated that in UP, fake encounters are being carried out on the instruction of the CM to cover up caste biases and hide their failures. CM’s fellow caste member, Vipin Singh, and other Thakur criminals have been saved/are being protected. The statement further claimed that this was not an encounter but a murder, where bullets were fired at close range. Pressure is being exerted on the doctors conducting the postmortem to alter the report so that this murder can be disguised as an encounter.
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In our fact-check research, we found a report by Lallantop dated April 15, 2023. According to the report, Uttar Pradesh Police ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar stated in a press conference held on April 13, 2023, that the state government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against ‘mafia raj.’ According to Prashant Kumar, 183 criminals have been killed in cross-firing during this government.
The report further added that Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter on July 10, 2020. Vikas was brought from Ujjain to Kanpur by the police. According to the police, during this time the car overturned, and Vikas was trying to escape. The UP police then killed him in the encounter. The other accused involved in this case—Prem Prakash Pandey, Atul Dubey, Amar Dubey, Praveen Dubey, and Prabhat Mishra alias Kartikeya—were also killed by the police in an encounter.
Apart from this, many other gangsters killed in encounters by the UP police include Tinku Kapala, son of Tilakram Srivastava; Moti Singh; gangster Vinod Kumar Singh; Sumit Gurjar; Balraj Bhati; Sunny Malik; and Rakesh alias Hanuman Pandey.
Moreover, in November 2020, the UP Police killed Roshan Gupta alias Kittu, a criminal with a reward of ₹1 lakh, in an encounter. Other criminals, Rajneesh alias Baua Singh and Manish Singh, who had shot Inspector Ajay Yadav, were killed in a police encounter in Varanasi. Wanted criminal Prashant Singh in Jaunpur, criminal Aditya Rana with a reward of ₹2.5 lakh from Bijnor, notorious criminals Sahab Singh and Badan Singh, and wanted criminal Sumit Singh in Jaunpur were also killed in encounters. In the Agra robbery case, two criminals, Manish Pandey and Nirdosh Kumar, were killed in an encounter. Manish Singh Sonu, with a reward of ₹2 lakh in Varanasi, was killed in another encounter by the UP STF.
In January 2023, the UP STF killed Vinay Shrotiya was killed in an encounter in Agra. Ashish Thakur was killed by the Bulandshahr police in the case of shooting a bullion trader during a robbery. In April 2023, the UP police killed the criminal Akash Gurjar in an encounter.
In the year 2024, the notorious mafia and sharp shooter Vinod Kumar Upadhyay was killed by the STF in an encounter in Sultanpur. Sumit Singh alias Monu Chavanni, a criminal with a bounty of ₹1 lakh, was killed in an encounter in Jaunpur. Nilesh Rai, a criminal with a bounty of ₹2 lakh, was killed in an encounter in Muzaffarnagar.
According to a report by UP Tak, among the 183 criminals killed from March 2017 to April 2023, a large number were Brahmins and Thakurs. The largest number of criminals were Muslim. Brahmin criminals were next, followed by Thakur criminals in third place. Jat-Gurjar criminals came after them. Yadavs and Dalits are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, on this list.
Apart from this, according to a report by Aaj Tak, a total of 9 criminals were killed in encounters from May 2023 to September 5, 2024. The list of criminals killed in these 16 months includes one Jat, Anil Nagar alias Anil Dujana; three Muslims, Gufran, Rashid Kalia, and Shahnoor alias Shanu; one Brahmin, Vinod Upadhyay; two Thakurs, Sumit Kumar Singh alias Monu Chavanni and Nilesh Kumar; and two Yadavs, Pankaj Yadav and Mangesh Yadav.
| Claim | Yogi Adityanath’s police conduct encounters based on cast |
| Claimed by | Akhilesh Yadav, Rohini Singh, Samajwadi Media Cell, and others |
| Fact Check | The UP Police have taken strict action against criminals and miscreants, which includes encounters. The criminals killed in these encounters come from various castes and religions |
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