Police gun down two listed criminals

LUCKNOW: In a pre-dawn encounter in the city, the Kaiserbagh police on Thursday gunned down two listed criminals and recovered Rs 1.30 lakh in cash and a stolen scooter from their possession.
The currency notes found with the miscreants had the stamp of Shiv Narain Petrol Pump. Its manager was shot dead and robbed of Rs 5.14 lakh on June 2, 2003. One of the miscreants managed to escape during the exchange of fire.
Superintendent of Police (SP) West Umesh Kumar Singh said that around 3:30 a.m, one Shyam Singh Rathore, son of Major DS Rathore of sector F in Jankipuram informed the Kaiserbagh police that he was robbed of his LML Vespa scooter (UP 32 W 1080) from near the Gymkhana club.Rathore, who is into dairy farming, was on his way to Mawaiyya when the incident took place.
Incidentally, the in charge of Kaiserbagh police station Inspector OP Tripathi along with his subordinates had just returned to the police station after a series of raids at the suspected hideouts of some wanted criminals. On being informed of the robbery incident, he quickly put his men ont he job. Extensive patrolling by all the vehicles available with the police station was conducted.
One of the patrol teams spotted three persons on a scooter and tried to intercept them. The suspects sped away from the scene even as their scooter reportedly developed a snag. In the meantime the patrol team informed other parties on the beat and all of them rushed towards the Kaiserbagh Telephone exchange road. The police began to zero in from all directions as the miscreants sped towards the Rai Umanath Bali auditorium entrance. The miscreants opened fire at the police. They returned the fire and two of the miscreants suffered injuries while the third one managed to escape.
The injured miscreants died on the way to Balrampur hospital. Police recovered two 315 bore countrymade pistols and a huge quantity of live cartridges and bullet shells from their possession. They were also carrying the cash apparently belonging to the petrol pump. It took several hours for the police team to get the deceased criminals identified as Ghani alias Vishal Tewari and Abdullah, both hailing from Sandila.
Thereafter it was corroborrated that the slain robbers were listed criminals and had over a dozen cases registered against them. The two were absconding as per the records of the courts where their cases were pending against them, SP West Umesh Kumar Singh said.
SSP Vijay Kumar, DIG Range AKD Dwivedi and IG Zone AK Jain visited the cite of the incident and announced cash rewards for the police team which executed the encounter. Recommendations were also made for cash rewards for the police teams as well.