A gangster carrying ₹1.25 lakh bounty was killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Police in Saharanpur in the early hours of Monday, officials said.
UP Police additional director general (ADG), Law and Order, Amitabh Yash said that Lalan Singh alias Lallan, wanted in a string of high-profile murders, bank robberies and attacks on police personnel, was a native of Anandgolwa village in Bihar’s Samastipur district.
Singh sustained bullet injuries during an exchange of fire with a police team on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday on the Sarsawa–Nakur road in Saharanpur district.
He was first taken to the community health centre in Sarsawa and later referred to the district hospital in Saharanpur, where doctors declared him dead, police said. One of his associates managed to flee during the encounter, and a search was launched to arrest him.
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According to police, Singh was among the most wanted criminals in eastern Uttar Pradesh and had been absconding in many sensational cases, including the shooting of a sub-inspector and the robbery of his service pistol in Varanasi on November 8, 2022, and a firing-cum-robbery case in Chandauli on November 1, 2022.
Police records show that Singh, along with his brothers and other gang members, was allegedly involved in a series of violent crimes spanning Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These included the murder of seven persons, among them two sub-inspectors, a bank cashier and a security guard, besides multiple bank dacoities, cash-van robberies and the looting of government firearms.
The commissioner of police, Varanasi, had announced a reward of ₹1 lakh for his arrest, while the superintendent of police, Chandauli, had declared an additional reward of ₹25,000.
Senior police officers said further details about the encounter, including the identity of the absconding associate and the recoveries made from the spot, will be shared at a later stage.
