Encounters under shadow of doubt in UP must be judicially probed: Priyanka

After the Uttar Pradesh Police gunned down a second accused in the Sultanpur jewellery store robbery case on Monday, 23 September, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said all encounters that are under the shadow of doubt should be judicially investigated.

The UP Police said they have gunned down a second accused in the Sultanpur jewellery store robbery case in a pre-dawn encounter in Unnao district.

The gunfight between the accused, Anuj Pratap Singh, and the Lucknow unit of the Special Task Force (STF) broke out around 4 am on Monday in the Achalganj area, officials said.

On 28 August, jewellery worth approximately Rs 1.5 crore was stolen from Bharat Jewellers in Thatheri market of Sultanpur city in the Achalganj police station area.

The STF had gunned down Mangesh Yadav, another accused in the case, on 5 September in an encounter. The killing sparked a political controversy with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress calling the encounter "fake".

In a post in Hindi on X, without naming anyone, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "The law of murder, violence, bloodshed and politics of taking away life, the law of bulldozer, has nothing to do with the Constitution and justice."

Calling the acts of establishing political dominance and reign of fear as law and order is an insult to the Constitution, she said in the post.

Law and order is based on the foundation of establishing peace in the society, punishing the criminal for reform and giving every citizen a chance to live, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said.

Barring exceptions, every life taken without the order of the court is nothing but murder, she said.

"According to the data in the news, has the law and order of the state improved due to the approximately 13,000 encounters that took place in UP in the last seven years? Crimes are not stopping.

"Then what is the purpose of this? Why is this game being played?" she said.

This "unconstitutional" work should stop and all the encounters that are under the shadow of questions and doubts should be judicially investigated, she said.