Meerut: A 42-year-old sharpshooter from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, with a ₹1 lakh bounty, was killed on Wednesday in an alleged encounter with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police’s special task force (STF) units in Meerut’s Mundali area, police said.
“The police encircled the accused, Jitu alias Jitendra, a resident of Sivan village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, and closed in after several rounds of gunfire were exchanged early Wednesday morning,” said Amitabh Yash, additional director general (ADG) of the UP STF.
Yash added that Jitendra collapsed after being shot when the STF retaliated. “His accomplices fled the scene, taking advantage of the darkness. The STF team took Jitendra to a hospital, where he died during treatment,” he said.
The STF recovered arms and ammunition from Jitendra, including a carbine with 22 9mm bullets, a .32 bore pistol with six bullets, and a motorcycle without a number plate.
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“Jitendra had been sentenced to life imprisonment for a double murder in Jhajjar in 2016. He was released on parole in 2023. Police began searching for him in connection with a double murder case in Ghaziabad in 2023. The Ghaziabad police placed a ₹1 lakh bounty on him after he was found absconding. During his time in Haryana prison, he became associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and started working for them,” said Brijesh Kumar Singh, superintendent of police (SP) of Meerut’s STF.
According to STF records, Jitendra was involved in around 10 criminal cases, including murder, robbery, rioting, and armed assault, under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Arms Act in Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.
In October last year, Yogesh Kumar, aka Raju, another shooter from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, was arrested in Mathura following an encounter. Raju was one of the two shooters involved in the murder of Nadir Shah, a Delhi gym owner with Afghanistan roots, on September 12 outside his gym in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash 1.