Wanted criminal carrying ₹2 lakh on his head killed in encounter

VARANASI: A criminal, carrying a reward of ₹2 lakh on him, was killed in an encounter with UP STF near Ring Road in the Lohta area of Varanasi, on Monday, a senior police officer said. A 0.32 bore pistol and a 9 mm carbine, and several cartridges were recovered from him.

Police added that a joint team of UP STF and Varanasi police commissionerate had been looking for Manish Singh ‘Sonu’ for the last many days. Wanted in several cases, Sonu was carrying a reward of ₹2 lakh.

The officer said that on Monday noon, the STF team led by additional superintendent of police Vinod Kumar Singh received input about the presence of Sonu near Bankat railway crossing in Lohta police station area here. Immediately a team of UP STF reached the spot and laid a siege. In an attempt to flee, Sonu opened fire at the UP STF team. UP STF team took retaliatory action, and an encounter began in which Sonu suffered serious injuries. He was taken to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead by the doctors.

Confirming the development, Varanasi, Commissioner of police, A Satish Ganesh, said Manish Singh ‘Sonu’ was a resident of Narottampur of Lanka police station area. Around 32 cases are registered against Sonu in various police stations of Varanasi, Mirzapur, Azamgarh and other districts under various charges, including murder, attempt to murder, robbery.

Sonu was, earlier, carrying a reward of ₹1 lakh, but it was increased to ₹2 lakh in August last year after his role came to the fore in an incident of double murder near Chowka Ghat Varanasi.

He was wanted in the murder case of property dealer ND Tiwari in Rohaniya and also in a murder case of a general manager of a company in Mirzapur. Sonu escaped from police custody in November 2020. The police had been looking for him since then. According to the police, Sonu currently lived in different places in Bihar and Nepal.