Shootouts shake Lucknow but Uttar Pradesh Police survey holds 81% people feel safe 

People once used to call Gorakhpur “Chicago of the East.” The district had earned the sobriquet in the 1980s because of sudden rise in violent crimes for which Chicago in the United States was known for.

The way crimes have been committed in Lucknow last month may make many believe that the state capital of UP is trying to snatch that tag from Gorakhpur.

As many as 13 shootouts were recorded in Lucknow in the month of September. Media reports suggest there were only two incidents in which legally licensed weapons were used by the criminals and the rest of the 11 shootouts were committed by country made weapons. Five people were killed in these firings. While the police claim to have cracked nine cases, four cases remain a mystery till date.

Mohammad Shahnawaz, a class four employee in the Railways, was shot at on the busy A.P. Sen Road in Hussainganj on September 24. The 45-year-old loco factory worker lived in his ancestral home with his wife, two children and two brothers in Gausganj under the Wazirganj Police Station.

As Shahnawaz left home on a motorcycle for Charbagh Railway Station, where he was posted, at 8.30 am in the morning of the fateful day, two bike-borne criminals pumped four bullets into his chest and escaped without any challenge. The victim died during treatment in the Trauma Centre of King George Medical University the next day.

Three people were arrested in the case and the police have said it was a property-related killing as some people including Askari Ali, a lawyer, wanted to grab his house and had been threatening him since long.

On September 21, Deepak Kumar, who used to run an eatery in the Sadar area under the Cantonment Police Station, was shot dead. Police claimed two people had visited his restaurant in the morning to get some snacks packed and they had an altercation over payment.

Deepak was going to deliver an order to a customer along with his aide Pushp Raj when the criminals stopped their scooty and fired indiscriminately at them. Deepak died on the spot. Pushp Raj was injured.

An eyewitness was quoted as saying that a police van had entered the police station close to the spot, barely a few seconds before the shootout. But even after hearing the shots, the policemen didn’t turn back.

Puhpa Raj said, “The criminals posed as crime branch officers and flaunted their pistols before firing”.

Prasant Pandey, a lounge manager in the posh Hazratganj area of Lucknow, was thrown out of a sixth floor apartment on September 18. The 36-year-old’s body was found lying on the backside of the apartment building on B. N. Road in Nazarbag area under the Kaisarbag Police Station.

The police claimed that the victim, who was a resident of Rajajipuram locality, had recently started the lounge in partnership and some monetary dispute had arisen.

Vikas Chandra Tripathi, Additional Superintendant of Police, said, “Prasant’s partner Mohammad Salim, his wife Zainab and brother Aamir were arrested on the charge of kidnapping, murder and destroying evidence.”

Ashok Yadav, a property dealer, was shot at by three unidentified criminals in Mohanlalganj on the outskirts of Lucknow on September 17 when he was going somewhere in his SUV. He died at the hospital the same day. Police claimed that professional shooters were involved.

A six-year-old girl was raped and her throat was slit in Wazirganj area of Saadatganj Police Station on September 16.

While such cases may have shaken the people, Uttar Pradesh Police have been patting themselves in the back. Based on a departmental survey, Director General of Police OP Singh claimed in September that “81 per cent people” considered themselves safe at public places under the present regime.

The DGP claimed the survey was done in nine districts of UP including Lucknow and views of 3,625 people were included in the “Impact Assessment Study.”