LUCKNOW Encounters have lengthy been a outstanding a part of the UP Police’s response to organised crime, gangsters, skilled shooters and repeat offenders since Yogi Adityanath turned chief minister in 2017. However with the 2027 meeting polls approaching, a sharper sample has emerged: high-profile crimes that set off public outrage, notably these involving ladies and youngsters, are more and more adopted by intensive police operations and, in lots of instances, encounters.
The political messaging across the method has additionally change into extra specific.
Adityanath has repeatedly warned offenders towards harassing or attacking ladies and ladies. In one among his most generally quoted warnings, he mentioned if anybody violated a lady’s security, “Yamraj” could be ready for him on the subsequent crossing. Such remarks have strengthened his authorities’s law-and-order pitch that criminals will face swift and uncompromising penalties.
The message has acquired renewed significance with a sequence of encounters this yr involving suspects accused of surprising crimes.
The newest was in Shamli, the place two alleged sharp shooters, Mohit and Sumit, linked to the August 26 homicide of Haryanvi singer and YouTuber Ankit Balyan, died throughout remedy after being injured in an trade of fireside with police early on Monday, in response to police.
Their deaths got here barely two days after one other encounter in Higher Noida involving Balraj, accused of abducting and murdering a six-year-old Muslim lady. Police mentioned he was killed inside 24 hours of the kid going lacking after he opened fireplace throughout an try and arrest him.
The encounter narrative after 2017 initially centred largely on gangsters, organised crime syndicates, land mafia {and professional} shooters. It later expanded to theft gangs, repeat offenders and suspects accused of attacking police personnel.
In 2026, many encounters adopted crimes that generated intense public anger. On August 1, a 12-year-old Class 4 scholar was allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered in Bulandshahr. Police killed the accused, Monu, 35, in an trade of fireside lower than 24 hours after asserting a ₹50,000 reward for his arrest.
The sample extends additional again. On April 20, Ghaziabad police killed Jeeshan, 55, wished in an alleged rape and homicide case involving his four-year-old niece. On Might 4, Ambedkar Nagar police killed Aamir, 19, accused of murdering a lady and her 4 kids.
Two days later, Hardoi police killed Mahnoor, 29, accused of abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering a seven-year-old boy.
On Might 31, Ghaziabad police killed Asad, accused of murdering 17-year-old Class 11 scholar Surya Pratap Chauhan. On June 22-23, Satpal alias Sattu, an accused whom Muzaffarnagar police described as a serial rapist and recurring offender, was injured in an encounter and died throughout remedy.
Throughout these instances, the broad sequence has been comparable: a severe crime sparks public anger, police launch an intensive search and the operation ends, in response to police accounts, in an armed confrontation.
There is no such thing as a publicly established proof that encounters are ordered for electoral concerns. The police place stays that officers try and arrest suspects and use deadly drive solely after they face armed resistance or an imminent risk.
In accordance with police figures, 314 alleged criminals have been killed in encounters in UP since March 2017. Forty-nine have been killed in encounters within the first eight months of 2026, exceeding the determine of 48 for all the 2025.
The federal government has constantly introduced encounters alongside arrests, prosecution and convictions as parts of its “zero tolerance” coverage. The BJP has additionally used regulation and order to distinction its authorities with earlier regimes, repeatedly invoking the “goonda raj” narrative.
Mission Shakti and Operation Conviction supplied institutional pillars to the broader messaging on ladies’s security and felony justice, whereas encounters stay its most seen element.
Questions over ‘half-encounter’ mannequin
The method has confronted severe judicial scrutiny. In August, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad excessive courtroom ordered a CBI inquiry into an alleged “half-encounter” in Shravasti involving an accused who was shot in each legs. The courtroom questioned a recurring function of police encounter accounts during which officers stay unharmed whereas the accused is hit within the legs, usually beneath the knee, asking how officers might so constantly obtain such exact capturing.
It directed the CBI to evaluate the capturing functionality of the cop involved, together with whether or not he might precisely fireplace a 9mm service pistol from 15 metres at evening merely by listening to a weapon being loaded.
An encounter, damage or dying can’t by itself set up guilt. A police declare of firing in self-defence additionally requires unbiased scrutiny via forensic proof, ballistic examination, CCTV footage and different investigation.
For the Yogi Adityanath authorities, encounters have advanced past being merely a policing tactic. They’ve change into a visual image of its declare that criminals can now not function with impunity.
Their political resonance is strongest when an encounter follows a criminal offense involving a lady or baby, permitting the federal government to reveal a speedy state response to instances which have generated intense public anger. However the sturdiness of the “zero tolerance” mannequin will rely on greater than the variety of criminals killed. Its broader take a look at can be whether or not swift policing is accompanied by credible investigation, profitable prosecution, convictions and accountability when allegations are made towards police personnel.
DGP Rajeev Krishna mentioned the police’s coverage was firmly rooted in regulation and due course of.
“The UP Police follows a transparent coverage of zero tolerance in direction of heinous crime, notably offences towards ladies and youngsters in addition to organised crime. This goes together with addressing ladies’s grievances at Mission Shakti Kendra in each police station. Our precedence in each case is to establish, arrest and produce the accused to justice via due course of. Police personnel are required to behave strictly throughout the regulation. Our message is unequivocal: no felony can be allowed to function with impunity, and each crime will obtain a swift, skilled, lawful and efficient police response,” he mentioned.
With Uttar Pradesh heading in direction of the 2027 meeting elections, encounters are more likely to stay each a policing statistic and an necessary factor of the federal government’s law-and-order narrative. The central problem can be whether or not the state can keep swift police motion whereas satisfying judicial scrutiny, due course of and calls for for unbiased accountability.
‘No felony allowed to problem regulation and order’
“Encounters will not be the state coverage of this authorities. However elimination turns into crucial when criminals change into regulation unto themselves and pose a risk to society at giant. This authorities made it clear from day one — no felony can be allowed to problem regulation and order and roam free after committing a heinous crime. Solely these criminals who threaten society and problem the state’s regulation and order are being neutralised.”
Anand Dubey, state spokesperson, BJP
‘Encounters rising…govt should make clear’
“We help real encounters in self-defence, however the rule of regulation can’t be changed by ‘thok do’. Allegations of disproportionate killings of PDA communities and custodial deaths increase severe issues over extrajudicial motion. With encounters rising forward of 2027, the federal government should make clear whether or not that is crime management or political image-building.”
Abbas Haider, spokesperson, SP
