New Delhi: The family of a young man from the Yadav community who was shot dead by police in an alleged “encounter” in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur have accused the police of executing him in cold-blood.
They alleged that the police shot him dead two days after picking him up from their house for questioning in relation to a dacoity case and holding him in illegal custody.
The killing of Mangesh Yadav by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh police on September 5 has triggered a political storm in the state. Opposition parties have called it a “fake encounter.”
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused the police of having the impunity to kill Mangesh merely because of his caste background while sparing the lives of other accused persons in the dacoity case belonging to other communities, including dominant castes.
Yadavs are the largest Other Backward Classes community in the state and considered the bedrock of the SP’s politics.
“The police took my son away and murdered him by shooting him,” Mangesh’s mother Sheela Devi said in a complaint addressed to the station house officer of Baksha police station in her native Jaunpur. In her complaint, a copy of which is with The Wire, Sheela Devi alleged that her son was “murdered by policemen while he was in police custody.”
Police alleged that Mangesh was killed in an “encounter” after he was shot in self-defence by cops who had made all attempts to arrest him.
Daylight loots in ‘safe’ state
On August 28, five unidentified persons looted a well-known jewellery shop in Thateri Bazar area of Sultanpur at gunpoint. The five men walked away with jewelleries worth lakhs of rupees. The daylight incident, caught on CCTV, shattered the Adityanath government’s claims of running a tight law and order in the state and invited criticism from all corners.
On the intervening night of September 2 and 3, around 3:40 am, police said they shot three persons accused in the crime in their legs in an alleged “encounter” near an inter-college in Sultanpur’s Godawa area. Two of them were shot in their right leg while the third was shot in his left leg.
Police said they also recovered 15 kg of silver jewellery, allegedly from the loot, from the three men identified as Sachin Singh, Pushpendra Singh and Tribhuvan Kori. A police constable Shailesh Rajbhar was also injured in the “encounter”, said police, who did not specify if he received bullet injuries. Police said the three men, carrying .315 bore pistols, had fired at the police with the intent to kill.
Another accused, Vipin Singh, who has more than two dozen cases to his name, had a day after the dacoity, surrendered before a court in Rae Bareli in another previously-registered case. The Opposition alleged that Singh, a dominant caste Thakur, was strategically allowed to surrender.
On September 4, the Additional Director General of Police, Lucknow Zone, declared a bounty of Rs 1 lakh each on 10 remaining accused persons. Among them was one Mangesh Yadav of Jaunpur.
Also read: Two Nights, Two ‘Encounters’: A Rape Accused Out on Parole Was Killed by UP Police
‘Cops woke him from sleep and took him away’
In the early hours of September 5, the UP STF shot dead Mangesh in an alleged “encounter” and termed him as one of the main accused in the Sultanpur dacoity case.
Mangesh’s family have accused the police of fabricating the “encounter” story. Mangesh’s father Rakesh Yadav, who works as a driver in Gujarat, upon returning to Jaunpur after his son’s death, told journalists that policemen in civilian clothes picked up his son from their home in Agraura village at around 2 am on September 3.
“They kept him in custody for two days. None of his guardians went to the police. Since they found him unattended, they shot him,” said Rakesh Yadav.
When Mangesh was allegedly picked up by the police, his mother Sheela Devi was at home.
She alleged that four-five policemen knocked on her door around 2 am on September 3. The policemen woke Mangesh from sleep and took him away, she alleged.
Sheela Devi claimed that police told her they were taking him for questioning and would release him after that.
Sheela Devi further alleged that on September 3 and 4, police teams came to her house and informed her that questioning was still going on and that Mangesh would be released after it was complete. Incidentally, it was on September 4, that the police declared a bounty on Mangesh’s head.
On September 5, however, Sheela Devi alleged that when police came to her house, they asked her to go to the post-mortem house in Sultanpur to pick up her son’s body. Sheela’s complaint seeking action against the police is yet to be registered.
‘Targeting Yadavs’
SP president Akhilesh Yadav is leading the charge against the UP police accusing it of targeting Yadavs. SP supporters and members pointed out on social media that all the 11 police personnel, including officers, who took part in the “encounter” of Mangesh belonged to dominant caste groups, particularly Thakurs and Brahmins.
The STF operation was led by deputy superintendent of police Dharmesh Kumar Shahi, whose wife Ritu Shahi, a BJP office-bearer in Gorakhpur, was nominated as a member of the UP state women commission on Tuesday, September 3.
Raghavendra Yadav, national general secretary of the SP’s Lohia Vahini, sarcastically pointed out on X that DSP Shahi, who took part in the “encounter” was seen wearing slide-in slippers as he posed next to a pool of blood at the site. The group photograph of the STF team after Mangesh’s killing, was officially released by the UP police.
UP Police at the site of the ‘encounter’.
Akhilesh Yadav dubbed Mangesh’s “encounter” as fake and raised questions on the entire operation of the state police.
“Seems like the ruling party had a deep communication with those involved in the Sultanpur dacoity. That’s why, before the fake encounter, they made contact with the ‘main accused’ and made him surrender while shooting others in their leg as an exhibit and killed someone due to his caste,” said Yadav in a long post on X.
The former UP CM targeted the Adityanath government over Mangesh’s killing. “Fake encounters turn the protector into a predator. The solution is not fake encounters but real law and order,” said Akhilesh Yadav.
According to the FIR lodged by DSP Shahi after Mangesh’s killing, the “encounter” started at 3:15 am on September 5. The STF team was made up of DSPs Shahi and Vimal Kumar Singh, inspectors Raghvendra Singh and Mahavir Singh, sub-inspectors Atul Chaturvedi and Pradeep Singh, head constables Neeraj Pandey, Sushil Singh and Ram Nivas Shukla, and constables Amit Tripathi and Amar Srivastava.
‘Restrained and controlled firing’
The STF said that after getting a tip-off about a suspect’s movement from an informant, they set up a checkpost in the Kotwali Dehat area of Sultanpur. The STF said that with the help of a torchlight they spotted a motorbike speeding from Sultanpur towards the bypass. The bike slowed down upon seeing the police and the pillion rider started firing at the STF Team, who took shelter in the bushes, alleged the police.
The suspects turned their bike and started escaping towards an under-construction railway bridge, said the STF. The police launched a hot pursuit and near Mishirpur Puraina village, upon finding themselves cornered, the suspects who were fleeing on a bike turned towards a kutcha road, further said the STF, adding that the bike skidded and lost control.
The STF alleged that the two suspects, now on foot, fired at them indiscriminately. The STF claimed that they asked the two suspects to surrender but the suspects continued to fire.
The STF said that its officers engaged in “restrained and controlled” firing and was mere ahead into the firing range with the intent to arrest the suspects. According to the police, Mangesh was found badly injured at the spot and was declared dead in a hospital.
The second suspect, whose identity and description are unknown, managed to escape from the scene, said the STF.
In the FIR, the STF said that they tried to find independent witnesses from public for registering their statement but nobody agreed to their requests.
“During the encounter, the STF displayed indomitable courage and valour and followed the directives of the National Human Rights Commission to the letter,” said the STF in a statement later.
The police said they recovered 4.95 kg of silver jewellery and two illegal pistols, 7.65mm and 315 bore, from Mangesh.
At least six bullets were fired at Mangesh, said the STF; inspectors Mahavir Singh and Raghvendra Singh fired two shots each and constables Amar Srivastava and Brijesh Singh fired a single shot each.
Also read: A Chronicle of the Crime Fiction That is Adityanath’s Encounter Raj
Many cases ‘but no role in current dacoity’
Prior to the August 28 dacoity case, Mangesh faced eight previous criminal cases, most of them linked to petty theft. In 2021, two FIRs were lodged against him at Karaundi Kala police station in Sultanpur for bike theft and mobile phone theft. The FIR for the bike theft was lodged against unknown persons.
In 2022, three more FIRs were lodged against Mangesh at the Line Bazar police station in Jaunpur for bike theft and attempting to sell the stolen vehicle. The same year, another case of bike theft was slapped against him in Patti police station of Pratapgarh district. The FIR in that case too was lodged against unknown persons.
On the basis of these crimes, the police in 2022 booked Mangesh under the stringent Gangsters Act. Incidentally, on August 28 when the Sultanpur jewellery shop was robbed, an FIR was lodged against Mangesh in neighbouring Jaunpur for a bike theft. Police alleged the same bike was used to facilitate the theft.
Mangesh’s family have claimed that he had no role to play in the Sultanpur dacoity.
On September 6, a delegation led by SP leader of Opposition in the UP legislative council, Lal Bihari Yadav visited Mangesh Yadav’s house and met his family. The leader alleged that the BJP government was targetting Yadavs and Muslims through the police.
“Even for a minute we consider that he committed the two-three petty crimes, does that give someone the right to kill someone else? This is taking law into their hands. If he had loot and theft cases against him, they could have taken it up in court,” said the senior SP leader.
The incident has heated up the caste politics in the state, as this was not the first time the Opposition has accused the police of shooting Yadav men in alleged “encounters.” In several cases, questions have been raised on the authenticity of the “encounters.”
For instance, in 2022, the Allahabad high court directed the police in Jhansi to register an FIR against policemen accused by the widow of a man Pushpendra Yadav who was allegedly killed in a “fake encounter” in 2019 because he had threatened to expose the local Station House Officer for demanding bribes from him in return for promising to free his seized truck.
SP MP from Machhlishahr (Jaunpur) Priya Saroj alleged that the killing of Mangesh Yadav was “caste-based murder.” “The chief accused from the Thakur caste of the Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) was allegedly made to surrender while an accused from the PDA family (Pichda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak, meaning OBCs, Dalits and Muslims) was picked up from home by the UP police and shot in his chest at point blank range,” said Saroj.
The BJP has countered the SP’s allegations saying that the main Opposition party was politicising caste of criminals.
Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, BJP UP president, said the government “doesn’t operate or discriminate on the basis of the caste of a criminal.”
Chaudhary said: “The government of Yogi ji is taking action against criminals and those who are guilty and involved in immoral activities without any discrimination in accordance with the law. It is the SP that is concerned by caste. They want to create caste conflict in the society.”
Keshav Prasad Maurya, deputy CM and a vocal non-Yadav OBC leader of the BJP, alleged that the SP had an “innate relationship” with all kinds of mafia, criminals, rioters and goons.
On September 4, the persons on whom the police declared a bounty, other than Mangesh, were identified as Vinay Shukla, Anuj Pratap Singh, Ankit Yadav, Ajay Yadav, Arvind Yadav, Vivek Singh, Durgesh Pratap Singh, Furqan and Arbaaz.
