463 held in 226 encounters in two years, says Noida Police

The Gautam Buddh Nagar Police commissionerate on Friday said it arrested 463 people and seized 360 weapons in 226 encounters with alleged criminals in the last two years.

Of these, 86 encounters took place in 2021 with arrest of 211 persons and seizure of 154 weapons, according to an official data shared by the police as the commissionerate system completed two years in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

In 2020, the district logged 140 encounters arresting 252 people and seizing 206 weapons from their possession, the data showed.

In one of the cross-firing episodes in 2021, a wanted criminal identified as Ajay alias Kalia was killed, the police said.

He carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his arrest, they said, adding that 46 reward-carrying criminals were arrested after encounters last year.

In the two years combined, the police said it nabbed three criminals carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, 11 with Rs 50,000 bounty, and 173 with Rs 25,000 bounty on their arrest.

Overall, 209 reward-carrying criminals have been arrested in Gautam Buddh Nagar since 2020, they said.

The commissionerate system of policing was enforced in Gautam Buddh Nagar district on January 14, 2020, with an additional director general-rank officer (the commissioner) replacing the senior superintendent of police as the head of the force.

Certain powers which reside with a district magistrate in a non-commissionerate are also vested in the police commissioner in a commissionerate, which sees a rise in number of officers and personnel in the force, too.

Gautam Buddh Nagar along with Lucknow had become the first two districts of Uttar Pradesh in 2020 to have implemented the commissionerate system of policing.

Eventually the same system was adopted in Kanpur and Varanasi as well.