On September 22nd, in a joint operation conducted by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police and an Ayodhya Police squad, criminal Anees Khan was killed in an encounter. He was the prime accused in the attack on a woman head constable aboard the Saryu Express on August 30th.
This encounter unfolded on Chhatriva Para Cal Road within the jurisdiction of the Purakalandar police station, resulting in the death of Anees Khan and injuries to two of his accomplices named Azad Khan and Vishambhar Dayal alias Lallu.
In the exchange of fire, Station House Officer Ratan Sharma and two other constables from the Purakalandar police station were also wounded. Two additional suspects involved in the same case were apprehended in a separate police encounter in the area under the Inayat Nagar Police Station.
While giving more information about this operation, a police official said, “An incident of assault on a woman police head constable took place in the Saryu express on the night between 29th and 30th August. A case in this regard was registered in the Ayodhya Cantt police station under sections 332, 307, and 354 of the Indian Penal Code. During investigations, section 394 was also added in this case.”
He further said, “The teams of Special Task Force were deployed to solve this case. Various information was being shared between the teams and the Ayodhya district police. Based on technical and manual information, the STF had identified a suspect by showing a photograph to the victim woman. In further developments, they shared the information with the Ayodhya police.”
The police official further said, “The STF and police teams raided a place under the Inayat Nagar police station in this case and tried to arrest the accused. The accused fired on the police teams. The police team fired in retaliation and arrested two accused, who were injured on the spot.”
#UttarPradesh: Main accused in case of attack on lady police constable killed in police encounter in Saryu Express near Ayodhya. pic.twitter.com/Gd4fqpWv9s
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) September 22, 2023
He added, “One of the accused escaped at the time of firing. A coordinated search operation was launched to catch the accused. A team of STF and police was continuously following him. The said accused was marked by the police once again in the area under the Purakalandar police station. When the police asked him to surrender, he fired on the police. The accused got injured in the cross-firing. He was then brought to the district hospital.”
The police further said, “During the medical treatment at the district hospital, one of the accused Anees Khan – son of Riyaz Khan – who was a resident of the area under the Haiderganj police station succumbed to the injuries and died. Two other injured accused are identified as Azad son of Mukhtar resident of Haiderganj and Vishambhar Dayal son of Premnarayan resident of Sultanpur. They are receiving the treatment now.”
#WATCH | UP: "An incident of injuring a woman head constable happened in Saryu Express in which a case was registered in GRP Ayodhya Cantt…The victim shared the information with the Ayodhya Police. Based on that, the Ayodhya Police and STF team raided a place to arrest the… pic.twitter.com/dm2VBTGAnH
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) September 22, 2023
OpIndia visited the encounter location
The OpIndia team visited the encounter site. A forensic team was examining the spot. In the information collected from the police sources on the spot, it was found that Anees Khan killed in the encounter used a motorcycle to escape from the police arrest. He was intercepted by police teams on Chhatriva Para Cal Road within the jurisdiction of the Purakalandar police station. As soon as he saw the police vehicles coming from the front, he took his motorcycle to the roadside and attempted to escape by taking a turn on a trail that goes to the nearby sugarcane farm.
The police asked him to surrender, but he instead fired at them. Realising that the police team can overpower him easily, he left his motorcycle and started to run as he wanted to disappear in the sugarcane as soon as possible. While on the run, he also continued to fire bullets at the police. As the police also opened fire in retaliation, he was eventually killed in the encounter.
Anees Khan used a scrambled motorcycle with different coloured parts. He had also scratched both the number plates of the vehicle so that he would not get caught by tracing the vehicle number if recorded in any CCTV at some toll plaza.
The background of the case
Sumitra Patel, a 1998 batch constable and currently head constable, works in Sultanpur district. In August 2023, she was posted in the Ayodhya Fair. On Wednesday (August 30, 2023) morning, she was found seriously injured under a seat inside the Saryu Express at Mankapur railway station in Gonda district. She was attacked with a sharp weapon and there was a lot of blood spilled around.
चार दिन पूर्व सरयू एक्सप्रेस ट्रेन में महिला सिपाही हेड कांस्टेबल सुमित्रा पटेल से हुई ट्रेन मे घटना के संबंध मे भाई का बयान – बहन के साथ कोई दुष्कर्म संबंधी घटना नही हुई थी,मीडिया चैनल व सोशल मीडिया पर लोग इस तरह खबरें चलाकर उनके परिवार की छवि धूमिल कर रहे है,पीड़िता का लखनऊ… pic.twitter.com/bZUIxe5DCB
— आदित्य तिवारी / Aditya Tiwari (@aditytiwarilive) September 3, 2023
Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Preetinkar Diwakar took suo motu cognisance of the incident. Filing a PIL, he issued notices to the Centre and the state government. Constable Sumitra’s brother Sachin Kumar expressed displeasure over the rape reports circulating on social media about his sister. Sachin said his sister was not raped or molested. The medical examination did not confirm any kind of sexual abuse. The woman police head constable is receiving treatment in the government hospital.
