Even as politics over STF encounters continued to hog the limelight in Uttar Pradesh another accused in the Sultanpur jeweler robbery case was killed early Monday by the police.

Anuj Pratap Singh was shot dead in an encounter with the STF personnel, the second in the jeweler robbery case after the killing of Mangesh Yadav on September 5 which generated a lot of political heat in the state. With the fresh killing, the number of criminals who died in encounters with the STF in the last seven-and-a-half years reached 50.

Like the previous one, the latest case of encounter killing set off a debate with Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav saying the weak consider encounter as their strength.

Blaming Akhilesh Yadav for the killing, the family of Anuj Pratap Singh said with this, the wish of the SP president, who has been complaining about the encounter of a Yadav, has been fulfilled.

In a statement on Monday, Yadav said only the weakest consider encounters as their strength while fake encounters are injustice. Calling it a big conspiracy against the state, he said violence and bloodshed are tarnishing the image of the state.

“Today’s rulers want to create such a situation in which no one would enter UP let alone invest in it as they know they will never be re-elected in the future,” he said.

This way the BJP wants to avenge its Lok Sabha debacle, alleged, adding, “Those who have no future of their own, are trying to spoil that of others.”

However, coming down heavily on both the BJP government and the SP chief, the father of Anuj Pratap Singh, Dharamraj Singh, pointed out that while his son was eliminated after being named in a single case, those with 35 to 40 cases against them are roaming free. Now that a Thakur has been killed in an encounter Akhilesh Yadav’s wish has been fulfilled.

Ameesha Singh, sister of Anuj Singh, said whatever is happening is in the state is wrong. “The government is acting arbitrarily. If someone committed a crime, the law should be allowed to take its course. But here the police are punishing through such encounters taking advantage of their uniform.”

Questioning the state’s law and order situation, she wondered how people with 36 cases registered against them go scot-free. “If 15 people were involved in an incident, going by the police logic all of them should have been encountered,” she added.