Encounter on Noida-Greater Noida expressway: Two shot

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and Greater Noida Police shot dead two “criminals” in a service lane along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on Monday.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and Greater Noida Police shot dead two “criminals” in a service lane along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on Monday.

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“We received an information that some criminals were going to Delhi in relation to arms supply. The special task force team had been following them from Banaras,” said Navin Arora, Senior Superintendent of police, UP STF.

“Their car was intercepted on the expressway. They were signalled to stop but they started to speed and fired at the police team. The police retaliated. Two criminals were injured in the firing. One managed to escape.”

The injured criminals were rushed to the district hospital where they were declared brought dead. The ‘encounter’ took place between the Chhaproli and Garhi Sahdara village service lane under Surajpur Police area along the expressway around 1.30 p.m, police said.

“The deceased criminals were identified as Ajay Manihar and Ashutosh Rai. Both are dreaded criminals listed in Ballia (in eastern UP) and were carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 each,” said Arora.

“They were involved in more than a dozen cases of murder and loot. They had committed two murders in Ballia. The victims had refused to pay extortion money to them and were murdered,” said Arora.

“One AK47 carbine and two pistols were recovered from the encounter site,” said the officer. “I was travelling from Greater Noida to Noida. I saw the police team chase the car in the service lane.

The criminals abandoned the car and ran away towards the nearby jungle area. Then I heard the sound of firing,” said a professor with a management college in Greater Noida.