Ghaziabad police arrest four in three encounters, three cops injured

The shootouts took place within a span of one-and-a-half hours in Raj Nagar Extension (RNE), Vijay Nagar and near Wave City, NH-24, areas of the city.

Four men— two of whom are vehicle lifters with a criminal background—and three police personnel were injured in a series of three encounters in Ghaziabad which took place late on Saturday night.

Three cops were injured. (HT Photo)

The shootouts took place within a span of one-and-a-half hours in Raj Nagar Extension (RNE), Vijay Nagar and near Wave City, NH-24, areas of the city.

In the first incident at Raj Nagar Extension, the police engaged with two armed robbers who had stolen a car from near river Hindon and fled towards Morta village. Having received information about the theft from car owner Nalin Gupta, the police cornered the two en route around 9pm.

The police and robbers exchanged fire in which constable Sachin Kumar was injured. The two robbers were also injured and arrested. Identified as Ravindra from Gautam Budh Nagar and Raman from Kasganj, the two were later rushed to the hospital.

Around 10pm in Vijay Nagar, a police checking team tried to stop two bike borne men who allegedly opened fire on the police team, injuring sub-inspector Mehkar Hussain’s hand. The police retaliated immediately and one of the two bike-borne assailants sustained a gunshot wound to his leg. The assailant, identified as Hashmat from Jarcha in Gautam Budh Nagar, was arrested and taken to a hospital, while his accomplice fled towards NH-24 on his bike.

Nearly half an hour later, a police team from the Masuri police station spotted a man on a bike near Wave City area, near NH-24, and asked him to stop. He allegedly opened fire at the police injuring police constable Shahid. The bike-borne assailant, identified as Imran, was shot and injured during retaliatory firing by the police. He was arrested and rushed to the hospital for treatment.

The police confirmed that the accused who was arrested from Masuri is the one who escaped from Vijay Nagar.

“The two men at Raj Nagar Extension are vehicle lifters and have a criminal background. The criminal history of the other two, who were arrested from Vijay Nagar and Masuri, is being traced. Country made weapons and cartridges were recovered from the possession of all four arrested accused,” superintendent of police (city) Akash Tomar said.

The three encounters in Ghaziabad come after a series of crackdown by UP police in different parts of the state. Similar encounters took place on February 2 at Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahr, Hapur and Meerut.

From January 31 to February 1, within a period of 24 hours, the police engaged in 10 encounters and arrested 18 accused persons from different areas of Bualndshahr, Shamli, Kanpur, Saharanpur, Lucknow and Baghpat.