Representational image for encounter.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police killed 48 alleged criminals in encounters in 2025, the highest annual figure in the last eight years, according to official data released on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference at the police headquarters here, DGP Rajeev Krishna shared the data, covering police action between March 20, 2017, and December 29, 2025.
Yogi Adityanath took charge as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in March 2017.
The data showed that 266 accused persons were killed in police encounters since 2018, reflecting the state police's emphasis on what the DGP described as a “zero-tolerance policy” against crime following the chief minister’s instructions.
In 2025 alone, police conducted 2,739 operations, during which 3,153 accused were injured, while 48 were killed in encounters. One policeman was also killed during these operations, the data showed.
The number of alleged criminals killed in police operations stood at 41 in 2018, 34 in 2019, and 26 each in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the figures dropped to 13, before rising to 26 in 2023 and 25 in 2024, the data showed.
Over the eight-year period since 2017, police carried out 16,284 operations in total, in which 10,990 accused were injured and 266 killed.
During these actions, 1,783 police personnel were injured and 18 lost their lives, according to the data.
The figures showed that 2025 recorded the highest number of accused killed in police action when compared to each of the previous seven years, including 2024, when 25 alleged criminals were shot.
The UP Police has consistently maintained that the operations were carried out in self-defence and in accordance with law, as part of a broader crackdown on organised crime and repeat offenders.