As one of the most decorated wings of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police, the Special Task Force (STF) recently celebrate its 25 years, founding member and retire Indian Police Services (IPS) officer Rajesh Kumar Pandey remember its initial days.
He recount how the UP STF was form to eliminate then dreaded gangster Shri Prakash Shukla.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“I am perhaps the happiest person to see the growth of one of the most decorated wings of the UP Police. There is a huge difference between today’s STF and that of the 1990s, when it was constituted. Indeed, it is like a flashback to me,”
Rajesh Kumar Pandey retire as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DSP), Bareilly range, and is a native of UP’s Prayagraj district.
It all began in the 1990s, when Shri Prakash Shukla’s terror peak.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“The force was first form on 4th May, 1998 just to eliminate Shri Prakash Shukla, who, by then, had become an eyesore for the UP Police,”.
“It’s the modus operandi that made Shri Prakash Shukla different from other gangsters,”.
Shri Prakash Shukla was unlike other gangsters, as he use to “enjoy killing”.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“Although he was well aware that one bullet is enough to kill his enemy, he use to keep pumping more bullets for publicity and to create more terror.”
The incident at Dileep Hotel in Lucknow on 1st August, 1997 was one of the deadliest, as Shri Prakash Shukla barge into room no. 102 and open fire at a railway contractor from Gorakhpur.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“He use an AK-47. It was perhaps the first time when the use of AK-47 was reported. Prior to this, the UP Police had once recovered an AK-47 from Varanasi,”.
The killing of mafia-turn-politician Viren Pratap Shahi, another gangster from Gorakhpur, was another incident that shook the UP government to the core.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“I still remember it was the day the results were being declared at a local school in Lucknow’s Indiranagar. Shukla peppered Shahi with bullets from his AK-47 in full public view. It was not a regular murder. It was executed in the presence of some 300 parents and children. Shukla shot at Shahi and after he fell to the ground, he fired bullets in his eyes, face, then confused over the position of the heart, he first fired to the left of the chest and then to the right to make sure he died. This was not all. He then turned the body and emptied the entire magazine,”.
The killing of Lucknow-based lottery dealer Vivek Srivastava was another gruesome murder in the list of killings carried out by Shri Prakash Shukla.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“An alleged supari (contract) worth Rs 6 crore to assassinate the then UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh turn out to be the last nail in Shri Prakash Shukla’s coffin. It was then that the STF was form,”.
He said the fact is also mention 1966 batch IPS officer Ajay Raj Sharma’s book ‘Biting the Bullet’.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“It was then that the CM called Ajay Raj Sharma, who was post in Sitapur. He post him as the ADG law and order and told him to form a unit to eliminate Shri Prakash Shukla. Initially, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arun Kumar, Additional SP Satyendra Veer Singh and I, who was posted as the Circle Officer Hazratganj, Lucknow, was roped in. With drivers and other staff, there were a total of 17 people in the unit,”.
The STF was form on a temporary basis for six months.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“There was a dire need for resources. Arun Kumar somehow manage to get a computer. But we were not computer literate. A trainer was hire from a local computer institute to teach us how to use it. It was an alien thing for all of us. The computer teacher use to teach us in the evening,”.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“We also need other resources to tap Shri Prakash Shukla’s phone calls. We then rope in an IITian from Kanpur who had develop a device that was capable of taping and transferring phone calls. It was the first time in the history of the country that any phone was tapped.”
Another problem was Shri Prakash Shukla’s photograph was not available anywhere.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey said :
“Shri Prakash Shukla was so sharp that he use to make sure his pictures were not leak. He had kill a photo studio owner for circulating his photo. Since then, none of his photos were available. We manage to get his picture from one of his relatives. The photo was of a birthday party Shri Prakash Shukla had attend. But his relative said that Shri Prakash Shukla will kill them if he learn that he had leak the photo. We had to save our source, so we decide to morph the picture to hide the background. At a book stall in Lucknow’s Hazratganj, I found some postcards of Bollywood actors and actresses. I decide to put Shri Prakash Shukla’s face on the image of Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty. We got it done and got the morph picture of Shri Prakash Shukla made from a photocopy shop in Hazratganj publish in the newspapers,”.
While, the Delhi Police got another technology to tap phones and Shri Prakash Shukla was track down with the help of electronic surveillance.
The Arun Kumar-led team left for Delhi where Shri Prakash Shukla was hiding.
Shri Prakash Shukla, the gangster was gun down in a fierce encounter on 23rd September, 1998.
After the encounter, the talks of disbanding the STF reach its peak, but the UP government decide to give it an extension of six months and later made it a permanent wing of the UP Police to crack down on organise crime and mafia.
The UP STF recently was in the limelight after CM Yogi Adityanath-led UP government launch a campaign against the mafia and gangsters.
STF also play a crucial role in demolishing the empire of gangster-turn-politician Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed.
UP government recently decide to strengthen the STF by establishing its units in four more districts and filling up vacant posts, said a state government spokesperson.
In a review meeting, Yogi Adityanath gave approval to the budget for the acquisition of land and construction of buildings for the units in Agra (Rs 2.84 crore), Gorakhpur (Rs 2.53 crore), Prayagraj (Rs 2.58 crore) and Bareilly (Rs 2.28 crore).
A transit hostel will also be construct for the STF’s Noida unit at a cost of Rs 9.62 crore.
Government has approve an amount of Rs 20 crore and order the release of the funds.
