Raipur: A total of 655 police “encounter” killings have taken place in the country in the last five years with Chhattisgarh reporting the highest 191 cases, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai has said.
According to the Home Ministry, in the period between January 1, 2017 and January 31, 2022, 117 such incidents were reported from Uttar Pradesh, followed by 50 in Assam, 49 in Jharkhand, 36 in Odisha, 35 in Jammu and Kashmir, and 26 in Maharashtra. Rai was responding to BJP MP Varun Gandhi’s question in the Lok Sabha on the number of such killings in the country.
Among other states, Bihar accounts for 22 cases; Haryana 15; Tamil Nadu 14; Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh 13 each; Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya 9 each; and Rajasthan and Delhi 8 each.
The numbers were provided after BJP MP Varun Gandhi had sought details on the same. He had also sought to know the number of FIRs filed into encounter killings, the number of ongoing investigations against police officers on charges of encounter killings, and the number of police officers convicted for encounter killings in the same period. The home ministry did not give any of these details.
Read: CRPF officer killed, jawan injured in encounter with Naxals in Chhattsigarh
