A man reportedly involved in a snatching in Ghaziabad on Friday that resulted in the murder of a 19-year-old girl student on Sunday night was shot dead in an encounter with police near the Upper Ganga Canal in Masuri on the night between Sunday and Monday, according to officials.

According to police, the assailant has been identified as Jitendra Kumar, a resident of Misalgarhi near Ghaziabad.

Kirti Singh, a resident of Hapur and a first-year engineering student at a college near Crossings Republik, died on Sunday night due to head injuries after falling from a running auto while attempting to resist the snatching by two bike-borne robbers on National Highway (NH) 9 on Friday afternoon.

“On the night of October 29/30, a police team observed two men on two bikes.” They were told to stop, but instead opened fire on the officers. During the shooting, one police sub-inspector was hurt. Police opened fire in retaliation, injuring one of the men on the bike fleeing the scene. The injured man was rushed to the hospital for treatment, but he died. “He was later identified as Jitendra Kumar, who was wanted in connection with Friday’s robbery with the girl student,” Vivek Chandra Yadav, DCP (rural), stated.

Balbir Kumar, Jitendra Kumar’s accomplice, was apprehended in Sikrod during an earlier crackdown on Saturday night. Balbir was shot in the leg as the police team opened fire in retaliation during the crackdown. During questioning, he admitted to police that he and Jitendra were allegedly involved in the heist with the women student.

According to police, they retrieved Kirti’s stolen phone from Balbir.

Kirti and her friend Diksha Jindal had taken the vehicle from outside her college on Friday afternoon. When the auto reached a flyover on NH-9 near Masuri, two men on motorbike attempted to steal Kirti’s phone, and she fell from the moving vehicle while resisting the criminals. She was brought to the hospital with significant head injuries, but she died during treatment on Sunday night.

A police force confronted five individuals on bikes near the Upper Ganga Canal near Masuri within hours of the event.

According to the DCP, Jitendra had 12 criminal cases against him, at least six of which were cases of looting, and he also had a Gangsters Act case against him in 2020.