Lawrence Bishnoi gang shooter with ₹1L bounty on his head killed in Meerut encounter
Additional director general of UP STF, Amitabh Yash, said that a joint team from Noida and Meerut STF tracked Jeetu to the Mundali area early Wednesday morning. “As the team surrounded him, an exchange of gunfire took place,” he said.
The Uttar Pradesh Police’s special task force (STF) units from Meerut and Noida shot dead Jitu alias Jitendra, 42, a sharpshooter linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, during an encounter in the Mundali police station area of Meerut on Wednesday. Jeetu, a resident of Sivan village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, was wanted in multiple cases across states, with a bounty of ₹1 lakh on his head.
Additional director general of UP STF, Amitabh Yash, said that a joint team from Noida and Meerut STF tracked Jeetu to the Mundali area early Wednesday morning. “As the team surrounded him, an exchange of gunfire took place,” he said.
“Jeetu was shot in STF’s retaliatory firing and collapsed, while his accomplices escaped in the dark. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died during treatment,” Yash added.
According to the STF, a large cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from Jeetu. The seized items included a carbine with 22 rounds of 9mm bullets, a .32 bore pistol with six bullets, and a motorcycle without a number plate.
Superintendent of police (SP) of STF Meerut, Brijesh Kumar Singh, said Jeetu had been evading arrest in a 2023 murder case in Ghaziabad, where police had announced a ₹1 lakh bounty for his capture. He had earlier been sentenced to life imprisonment for a double murder in Jhajjar in 2016 but absconded after being released on parole in 2023.
“During his time in Haryana prison, he came into contact with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and later became involved in their activities,” police sources said.
According to STF records, Jeetu had ten criminal cases registered against him in Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. He was wanted for charges under IPC sections 302 (murder), 392 (robbery), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 342 (wrongful confinement), 382 (theft with intent to cause death), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and multiple sections under the Arms Act.
In October last year, another Lawrence Bishnoi gang shooter, Yogesh Kumar alias Raju, was arrested in Mathura after an encounter. He was one of the two assailants involved in the killing of Delhi-based gym owner Nadir Shah on September 12 outside his gym in Greater Kailash 1.
Speaking to the media in Assauda village, Jhajjar, Jeetu’s uncle, Jai Prakash, said that Jeetu was an international-level weightlifter who had represented India in Australia and other countries.
