UP: Suspect in murder of two RPF constables dies after encounter with STF

Lucknow: A suspected liquor smuggler allegedly involved in the murder of two RPF personnel last month died on Tuesday after an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Police in the Ghazipur district, officials said.

Suspect Mohammad Zahid, alias Sonu, suffered severe injuries in the gunfight late Monday night and was declared dead at the district hospital in Ghazipur in the early hours on Tuesday, they said.

The Noida unit of UP Special Task Force (STF) and the local Ghazipur Police team were part of the operation, Additional Director General (Law and Order and STF) Amitabh Yash said on Monday night.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) constables Javed Khan and Pramod Kumar were killed in the intervening night of August 19-20. The constables were trying to stop the smuggling of illegal liquor in Barmer Guwahati Express (train number 15631), Yash said.

The liquor smugglers allegedly brutally beat up both the constables and threw them off the moving train, as a result of which they died, he said.

Ghazipur Superintendent of Police Iraj Raja said Zahid alias Sonu, a native of Patna, had suffered injuries in the encounter in which two police personnel also got injured.

"Zahid was the main conspirator of the August 19-20 incident. We had received inputs about him once again trying to smuggle liquor on the same route near Dildarnagar. A team of the Ghazipur Police and the Noida unit of STF rounded up Zahid, ensuing a gunbattle in which he suffered severe injuries. Two policemen also suffered injuries," Raja said.

"He (Zahid) was first taken to a CHC and from there referred to the district hospital where the doctors declared him dead. He died after the encounter. Further legal proceedings are being carried out," he told reporters.

Zahid alias Sonu (25) carried a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh, the officer said.

Raja said six other persons involved in the August 19-20 incident had already been arrested following two separate encounters.