- Criminals tremble at the name of UP STF today. This STF was made to kill gangster Sriprakash Shukla. In the 1990s, not only the politicians but also the police were shaking the businessman because of Shukla's black behavior. Shukla was 25 years old when he was shot dead by the police but in five years he created such a fear that even today he is considered as the biggest gangster of UP. Shukla also took betel nut to kill Chief Minister Kalyan Singh for six crore rupees.

The Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force (UP-STF) has completed 25 years amid allegations that the Yogi Adityanath BJP government is running an 'encounter raj' in Uttar Pradesh. The UP-STF was formed in 1988, which was at the center of the so-called 'Encounter Raj' of the Yogi government. Political opponents have alleged that the Yogi government is using the STF to exterminate Muslims and suppress political rivals.

Amidst these allegations, one thing has to be admitted that the UP STF has done a job that no other police unit in the country has done. UP was once synonymous with Gundaraj. This image of UP has changed since Yogi gave the STF a free rein. UP is still not free from hooliganism or crime, but it has to be admitted that the situation in UP is better than before. By making more than 10,000 encurrences in the last five years, the STF has created tremendous fear among the criminals.

It will be surprising to know that UP STF, the name of which criminals tremble today, was formed to kill a gangster. Crime is not a new thing in UP and one by one superior gangsters have come and bandits have also come but in the 1990s due to the black crime committed by a gangster named Sriprakash Shukla, the businessmen and politicians were trembling but the police were also trembling.

It has become a situation where the UP Police does not have the strength to stop the hooliganism and crimes of Sriprakash Shukla. Due to this, UP Police has become a laughing stock across the country. BJP's Kalyan Singh was the Chief Minister of UP then. Shukla was so angry that he even bought a betel nut to kill Chief Minister Kalyan Singh for six crore rupees. After this came out, Kalyan Singh got angry and formed a special task force to eliminate Shukla. The task force formed on May 3, 1998 had 20 members from UP and Delhi police together. Rajesh Pandey, Arun Kumar and V.P.S. Chauhan was the head of the STF. The STF was given a list of 43 notorious gangsters of UP at that time and ordered to eliminate them at any cost. Sriprakash Shukla was at the top in this list. Sriprakash Shukla entered the world of crime at the age of 20 and was only 25 years old when he was shot dead by the police, but in five years he created such fear that even today he is considered the biggest gangster in UP. Born in a village in Yogina Gorakhpur, Shukla's father was a teacher. In 1993, when Shukla was 20 years old, he killed a young man named Rakesh Tiwari in a cable business dispute. Because of this, the police fell behind him.

Harishankar Tiwari, the politician credited with criminalizing UP politics, sidelined Shukla and sent him to Bangkok. A few months later, Tiwari recalled Shukla and had his political rival and MLA Virendra Pratap Shahi killed in return for his favors. Shahi Thakur was a gangster and he was also feared. Shukla stunned everyone by killing him on a sunny day in Lucknow. This murder created tremendous fear in Shukla.

Shukla then became interested in railway contracts. Along with this, extortion was also started from the builders. By killing rivals of his men, leaders who were godfathers of rivals and officials who did not give contracts, Shukla established a reign of terror, his relations with many leaders including Surajbhan, Amarmani Tripathi became close. Shukla also worked for them.

Surajbhan used to arrange weapons for Shukla. Shukla started a series of murders from 1-47 in UP.

Shukla's ambition was to become India's biggest don so he became ruthless. In that he took the betel nut to kill the Chief Minister and decided his own end.

The UP STF carried out Operation Bazooka within four months of its formation, bringing down Shukla and ending his empire.

To avenge this murder, Shukla's gang killed an STF inspector named Pritamsingh two months later, but the STF caught the killer Rajan Tiwari within a month.

Tiwari became the gang leader after Shukla's encounter. Tiwari informed that several leaders including DP Yadav, Pappu Yadav, Rajpal Tiwari were helping the gang but nothing happened.

After Shukla's encounter, the UP STF was left in limbo. It existed but no important work was done by it. After Yogi Adityanath came, he used STF extensively.

The STF has busted the crime empire of notorious gangsters like Vikas Dubey, Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmad. This is why West Bengal in the country. Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, etc. states also have STF but they are not noticed like UP Police.

UP Police silent killer unlike Mumbai encounter specialists

At one time there was talk of a detection unit set up to eliminate gangsters in Mumbai.

In the 1980s and 1990s, when Mumbai's gang wars made life miserable for the common man, the detection unit, created to eradicate gangsters, swooped down on hundreds of criminals. Due to this, this detection unit also came to be known as 'Encounter Squad'.

Daya Nayak, Vijay Salaskar, Pradeep Sharma, Valentine D'Souza, Ravindra Angre, Raju Pillai, Prafulla Bhonsle, Sachin Vazhe, Sanjay Kadam, Shivaji Kolekar etc. became heroes of this unit. Most of these encounter specialists ran into controversies.

There were also allegations that these encounter specialists were actually helping the gangsters by taking money from one gang and killing the goons of other gangs in the name of cleaning up the underworld.

The UP STF is also an 'encounter squad' and has conducted more encounters than Mumbai's detection unit, but it is a big deal that no such allegations have been made against it. Most of the people in the UP STF work undercover instead of emerging as heroes like Daya Nayak or Pradeep Sharma.

Due to this, even after 25 years, UP STF did not produce any encounter specialists like Mumbai who are proud of the statistics of their encounters.

Shoaib Ilyasi got a call and Shukla's game over

On September 22, 1998, Sriprakash Shukla left for Palam Airport with his girlfriend in Vasantkunj, Delhi from Ghaziabad, when the team of Sub Inspector Chauhan of STF shot him dead in an encounter. Along with Shukla, his two hoof companions Anuj Pratap Singh and Sudhir Tripathi also died.

Shukla was going from Delhi to Ranchi in Bihar. In Bihar at that time Laluprasad Yadav's family ruled and the mineral mafia was dominated by Surajbhan. Surajbhan arranged a safe house for Shukla in Ranchi, so Shukla used to go to Ranchi after committing the crime.

Shukla's encounter was made possible by a TV show. Shoaib Ilyasi's India's Most Wanted show became extremely popular at that time. Shoaib did an episode about Shukla's crime empire a few days back. At that time Shukla threatened to kill him but at the same time people came to know about Shukla.

One such person informed that Shukla was at AIIMS on September 10. Shukla escaped before the police arrived and thus survived. On September 22, the same person again gave complete information along with Shukla's car number. Shoaib gave this information to the STF and Shukla could not escape this time.