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Wanted criminal gunned down by STF in Shahjahanpur
STF’s Bareilly unit, led by DSP Abdul Qadir, tracked and surrounded Shahnoor around 1 am on Thursday in the Madanpur police station area of Shahjahanpur, while he was on his way to Sambhal after spending a month in Uttarakhand.
LUCKNOW: A notorious gangster, Shahnoor alias Shanu (37), involved in several robbery and murder incidents, was gunned down in a fierce police encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) Bareilly unit in Shahjahanpur district on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, confirmed senior STF officials on Thursday morning.
They said Shahnoor had over 32 criminal cases against him between 2009 and 2023, including cruelty to women and robberies. The Additional Director General (ADG) of the Bareilly Zone had announced a reward of ₹1 lakh for his arrest.
Sharing further details, STF ADG Amitabh Yash informed that the Bareilly unit, led by DSP Abdul Qadir, tracked and surrounded Shahnoor around 1 am on Thursday in the Madanpur police station area of Shahjahanpur, while he was on his way to Sambhal after spending a month in Uttarakhand.
He said the accused opened fire on the police team when they tried to arrest him, and he was shot in the chest after 12 minutes of retaliatory firing. He was rushed to a nearby government hospital where he was pronounced dead by the doctors. The police recovered an English-made revolver and a pistol from his possession, he added.
Another STF official said Shahnoor was born into a poor family in Sambhal’s Hayat Nagar. He initially got involved with local criminals and committed small crimes to earn a livelihood. However, he soon joined the Usman gang and began committing heinous crimes. Shahnoor was first booked under the Gangster Act in 2009 at the age of 22, when his name surfaced as an active member of the Usman gang, with as many as 32 criminal cases against him, he said.
The official further said that Shahnoor gained notoriety for cruelty and rape while committing robberies and dacoities in the Sambhal and Moradabad regions. He and his gang members often hid outside the state in Delhi and Uttarakhand after committing crimes, returning to commit another crime after two to three months. The STF had been searching for him for three months, as he was wanted in a case registered with the Mainather police station in Moradabad. A reward of ₹1 lakh had been announced for his capture on May 4 earlier this year, he said.
Notably, Shahnoor is the third criminal gunned down in a police encounter in the state in the past 45 days.
