THE UTTAR Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) and the Baghpat police in a joint operation shot dead a “highway robber” in an encounter on Sunday, officers said. Sandeep Lohar, 36, was part of an inter-state gang linked to the murder of at least four truck drivers, police said on Monday. Police said Lohar, who hailed from Haryana, was injured in an exchange of fire and died during treatment at a hospital. He was wanted in a Rs 4 crore robbery in Kanpur. Police had declared a Rs 1 lakh bounty on his arrest. Police said that they had been tracking Lohar for a while and a team was formed under Additional Superintendent of Police Raj Kumar Mishra to apprehend him. “On Sunday, a Noida STF team was conducting checks in Baghpat when they were alerted that Lohar would soon reach an area to carry out a loot. The STF informed the Baghpat police and a joint team reached the spot, They spotted two men on a motorcycle approaching them. We asked them to stop but in a bid to escape, they opened fire on the police team,” said the officer. “The police team returned fire, resulting in injuries to Lohar. He was immediately taken to a hospital for treatment, where doctors declared him dead,” read a statement issued by the STF. The other person managed to flee, police sources said. Police said Lohar had over 16 cases registered against him across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana. “These included the murder of four truck drivers. He was involved in highway robberies and his modus operandi involved targeting trucks carrying valuable goods. The gang would kill the drivers before fleeing in the truck,” said a police officer.
