Lagatar24 Desk
Ranchi, Feb 9: As many as 49 encounter killings have been reported from Jharkhand over the last five years, minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told Parliament on Tuesday.
Rai was responding to BJP member Varun Gandhi’s question on the number of such killings in the country including Uttar Pradesh from January 1, 2017.
A total of 655 encounter killings reported in the country. Out of this, 191 police encounter killings were reported from Chhattisgarh followed by Uttar Pradesh (117), Assam (50), Jharkhand (49), Odisha (36), Jammu and Kashmir (35).
Nityanand Rai told the House in a written reply that a total of 26 people were killed in police encounters in Maharashtra from January 1, 2017 to January 31, 2022. In Bihar, 22 such cases were reported. The Minister of State for Home gave information that 15 people were killed in police encounters in Haryana and 14 in Tamil Nadu. 13 encounter cases were registered in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. There have been 9 such cases in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya. There were 8 encounters in Rajasthan and Delhi
In response to Gandhi’s inquiry about ongoing investigations into police officers accused of “encounter killings” and the number of policemen convicted in such circumstances, Rai stated that no such records are kept centrally because law enforcement and public order are state subjects.
