DGP Prashant Kumar said that the government identified illegally acquired benami properties and freed them from mafia criminals and confiscated and demolished properties worth more than Rs 142 billion 46 crore 18 lakh.

UP News: After the Yogi Adityanath government came to power in UP in 2017, many things were done to improve the law and order situation here. The Chief of the state Yogi Adityanath had said in the beginning of 2017 that those who do not want to live in peace should either leave Uttar Pradesh or their place would be in jail. The Chief of the state had said that there has been a zero tolerance policy in the state in the last eight years.

Under the zero tolerance policy, UP Police under the leadership of CM Yogi Adityanath has killed 222 dreaded criminals in encounters in the last eight years, while 8,118 criminals have been injured. This includes 20,221 wanted criminals. So far, action has been taken against 79,984 criminals under the Gangster Act, while strict action has been taken against 930 criminals under the National Security Act (NSA). 

What did the DGP say?

In this government, illegally acquired benami properties were identified and freed from mafia criminals and properties worth more than 142 billion 46 crores 18 lakhs were confiscated and demolished. Regarding the action taken against the mafia, DGP Prashant Kumar said that from the year 2017 to December 2024, by effectively pleading in the pending cases of 68 identified mafia criminals, 31 mafias and 74 co-criminals were sentenced to life imprisonment/imprisonment and fine in 73 cases in different cases. Two of these criminals have also been sentenced to death.

The DGP said that 795 cases were registered against 68 identified mafias and 1,408 associates of their gangs in the state, out of which 617 have been arrested. Apart from this, arms licenses of 359 criminals were cancelled and action was taken against 18 criminals under NSA. 752 criminals were punished under the Gangster Act, while illegal property worth more than Rs 4,076 crore was seized.

Government's tough stand - DGP

He said that the Yogi government has also taken a tough stand on crimes against women and minors. So far, the culprits have been punished in 27,425 cases, 11,254 cases of POCSO Act and 3,775 cases of dowry murder. The DGP said that under the strictest action against criminals by the Yogi government, under Operation Conviction from July 2023 to December 2024, 51 accused were awarded death penalty, 6,287 criminals were awarded life imprisonment, 1,091 criminals were sentenced to more than 20 years, 3,868 criminals were sentenced to 10 to 19 years and 5,788 accused were sentenced to less than 5 years.

Prashant Kumar said that the Yogi government freed more than 66,000 hectares of land from illegal occupation by forming a four-tier anti-land mafia task force. 142 land mafias were identified and legal action was taken against them. Since 2017, the Special Task Force (STF) has prevented 653 heinous crimes before they could happen. At the same time, the ATS has arrested 130 terrorists and 171 Rohingya/Bangladeshi criminals and their associates since 2017.