Lucknow, February 27 A criminal, carrying a reward of Rs 50,000, died after an encounter with a joint team of the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force (Noida unit) and the Agra Police in the Ekta area of Agra on Friday evening.
Police said the criminal, identified as Pawan alias Kallu, was a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad. He was taken to SN Medical College in Agra after being injured in the shootout, where he was later declared dead.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Amitabh Yash said in a statement that Pawan was a known member of the Randeep Bhati-Amit Kasana gang. He was involved in more than 18 cases, including four murder cases and two instances of extortion.
According to the additional DGP, Pawan was wanted in an extortion case registered at the Tajganj police station in Agra. In 2021, a reward of Rs 1 lakh was announced for his arrest in a murder case, for which he was jailed in Delhi.
Police investigations revealed that while in jail, Pawan established contacts with the Himanshu Bhau gang of Haryana. Following his release in 2025, he started demanding large sums of money as extortion, and was allegedly planning major crimes in Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh in collaboration with this gang, the additional DGP said.
The police team recovered a 9 mm pistol and several cartridges from the scene. The weapon was stolen in 2016 from a police constable in Gautam Buddha Nagar who was then posted as a personal security officer to an additional district judge, the senior officer added.