UP: STF Picked Up Anil Dujana From Karkardooma Court to Encounter him, Allege Family and Lawyer
Police near the encounter site where dreaded gangster Anil Dujana was shot dead by the U.P. STF, near Ganganahar in Meerut district, on May 4, 2023. Image Courtesy: PTI
Lucknow: Grief and anger shrouded residents of Dujana village in Noida's Badarpur tehsil days after the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on May 4 gunned down "dreaded gangster" Anil Nagar alias Anil Dujana in an alleged encounter in the Jani area of Meerut district.
Anger was palpable on the streets as life came to a halt in the village on Thursday. Villagers shut their shops and businesses as a mark of anger, raising questions over the encounter.
Dujana's wife, Pooja, is inconsolable.
"He left me within two years of getting married; please take me to the spot where you killed him and kill me. I can't live without him," she said.
The deceased's elder brother Bhopal Nagar, who looked visibly shaken up, speaking to NewsClick, said, "We wanted to send him to the army, but he was trapped in a crime world due to bad company. However, killing him despite being on bail, and the fact he went to the court to surrender, does not make sense."
He added, "My brother had gone to Karkardooma court on Thursday to surrender along with Rakam and Yogesh, but the STF officials picked up my brother from outside the court and brought him to Meerut and killed him."
However, the STF officer denied the family's allegation and claimed police had gotten a tip-off that Dujana and his associates were going towards the Sardhana area and had planned to commit a murder there.
Dujana, who had 64 cases against him, including multiple related to murder and extortion, had been booked under the UP Gangsters Act and the National Security Act (NSA).
Released on bail from Tihar jail last week, Dujana was booked by Gautam Budh Nagar police in two fresh cases for threatening to kill the wife of a murder victim and an eyewitness to the murder.
According to Amitabh Yash, Additional Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh, Special Task Force, his team surrounded Anil Dujana in a village under Jani police station of Meerut where "he opened fire at police to escape and was killed in retaliatory action."
"During the search, two weapons and a huge amount of cartridges were recovered from his vehicle. It seems that he was planning to commit some incident," the STF chief claimed, adding that the Scorpio in which Dujana was travelling was also seized.
Jitendra Nagar, Dujana's lawyer, claimed that the STF picked him up from outside Delhi's Karkardooma court, and he was later shown to have been killed in an encounter.
"On Thursday, Anil Dujana had gone to meet his lawyer to file a surrender application and was about to surrender in Surajpur court of Gautam Budh Nagar the next day (Friday). Before he could understand anything, he was picked up by the STF team and killed in Meerut. Now they are showing that he was killed in an encounter," Jitendra Nagar told NewsClick, adding that he was in touch with the deceased's family members and would initiate legal action soon.
Nagar further said, "Dujana got bail in all the cases except two fresh cases which were registered at the Surajpur police station on April 19 and at the Dadri police station on April 24 in a case of extortion. There were dozens of others booked in the same case. We are in the process of his bail application for these two cases as well."
When asked about the STF denying the allegation of picking Anil from the court, he said, "The STF should share their location if they had not been to court. Most importantly, why no policemen were injured in retaliation and if Anil fired at the police station? It is the same bogus theory of police in every encounter. Anil was picked up from court and shown he was killed in an encounter."
However, the role of the UP police and STF have come under scanner once again after the family's allegation.
Dujana's death comes three weeks after the STF killed gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed's son Asad Ahmed and his aide Ghulam Hussain in an encounter in Jhansi on April 13.
Two days later, Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead while being taken for a medical check-up by police in Prayagraj.
With Dujana's killing, 184 encounters have taken place ever since Yogi Adityanath's government came into power, according to the UP police.
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