by Sanjay Saxena
Lucknow: In the seven and a half years of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s tenure, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has successfully completed a half-century of encounters, taking down notorious criminals. The 50th criminal, Anuj Pratap Singh, a fugitive involved in the Sultanpur dacoity case with a bounty of one lakh, was killed by the STF in an encounter in Unnao on the morning of September 23.
To improve law and order in the state, the STF has sent 872 criminals involved in various criminal cases, along with 379 cybercriminals and illegal drug and weapon traffickers, behind bars. In total, 7,015 notorious and wanted criminals have been apprehended.
ADG STF Amitabh Yash stated that the STF is continuously conducting operations to rein in crime and criminals in the state. Thanks to the STF’s proactive measures, over 559 criminal incidents have been prevented in the last seven and a half years, including kidnapping, robbery, and murder cases involving public representatives, prominent individuals, and ordinary citizens. The STF has also arrested 3,970 organized criminals.
Yash further explained that the STF has taken action against 193 gangs involved in cheating in examinations and paper leaks, apprehending 926 leaders and facilitators. Additionally, 189 illegal arms traffickers have been arrested, leading to the seizure of 2,080 illegal weapons and 8,229 illegal cartridges.
In the fight against illegal narcotics, 1,082 accused have been arrested, with seizures including 91,147.48 kilograms of cannabis, 2,054.651 kilograms of hashish, 19,727.1 kilograms of poppy husk, 7.06 kilograms of morphine, 723.758 kilograms of smack, 21.521 kilograms of heroin, 181.012 kilograms of opium, and 6.1 kilograms of brown sugar.
Moreover, the STF has apprehended 170 members of various gangs involved in the poaching and trafficking of protected wildlife, recovering 341 kilograms of turtle shells, 2 pangolins, a tiger skin, 18 kilograms of tiger bones, two elephant tusks, 8,011 turtles, 563.1 kilograms of red sandalwood, 44 elephant tusk artifacts, 25 leopard teeth, 24 claws, and 110 other items.
Avinash stated that Gautam Buddha Nagar, adjacent to Delhi, has become a major hub for cybercriminals, with 225 apprehended from the area in the past seven years. STF DSP Deepak Singh added that 116 criminals have been arrested from Lucknow and nine from Ghaziabad, including 16 cybercriminals from a gang that cheated around two crore through digital means targeting an associate professor from SGPGI. Additionally, the STF has uncovered the largest online fraud gang in the state, resulting in the arrest of 105 cybercriminals.
