Lucknow: Vinod Kumar Upadhyay, a notorious criminal from Gorakhpur succumbed Friday to gunshot wounds suffered during an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF), marking the 195th encounter by the UP Police since 2017 and the first this year.
A statement from the UP Police said Vinod, who carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh, died during treatment after suffering a gunshot near the Hanumanganj railway bypass crossing in Sultanpur early Friday. A reward of Rs 25,000 on his head had been increased to Rs 50,000 and then to Rs 1 lakh last year.
“A 9 mm pistol with a magazine, one sten gun, three live cartridges, five dead cartridges and one Swift car have been recovered from him,” it added.
UP Police sources said the force had been searching for Vinod for the past seven months and that his brother Sanjay surrendered in August 2023.
According to UP Police records in possession of ThePrint, Vinod’s name was in the list of the top 61 mafias of the state and the top 10 mafias of Gorakhpur. He had at least 35 criminal cases lodged against him between 1999 and November 2023. These range from murder, attempt to murder, and violations of the UP Gangster Act, and Goonda Act, among others.
Criminal background
A native of Ayodhya, Vinod and his family shifted to Gorakhpur where his father worked as a money lender. Vinod and his brothers followed in their father’s footsteps and became money lenders.
He ventured on the path of crime as a student leader at Gorakhpur University. “He would indulge in fights and petty crime in his student days but several cases were not lodged. He would get his candidates fielded in the student union polls,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Deepak Kumar Singh, who led the encounter, told ThePrint.
A senior UP Police officer added that Vinod emerged as a mafia under the patronage of Hari Shankar Tiwari — referred to as the first don of Purvanchal in local parlance — and started extorting people for contracts for railways and Food Corporation of India (FCI), among others.
“He became a member of the Tiwari gang for whom he started working. He was somewhat inspired by Shriprakash Shukla (dreaded gangster). After Shukla died in an encounter, Vinod got close to Satyavrat Rai, who was like an advisor to Shukla, and both started working together,” the officer said.
According to police officers in the know of things, Vinod gradually built a gang of youngsters, especially from his community (Upadhyays are Brahmins), whom he would influence by his style and display of muscle power and firepower.
“He would be accompanied by several associates carrying arms — a trend among bahubalis of Purvanchal. Youngsters looking for easy money would get influenced by him. He started running an extortion racket and established himself as a mafia,” DSP Singh added.
Vinod’s influence among local youngsters could be gauged by the fact that in 2006 he was reportedly spotted at a swearing-in ceremony of the student union of the Mahatma Gandhi PG College, Gorakhpur.
Gang rivalry
Vinod became a notorious criminal after a clash with gangster Lal Bahadur’s gang in 2007. Two of Vinod’s men were killed by the rival group in a shootout in the Civil Lines area in 2007. While Vinod’s associates were booked by the police, Lal Bahadur was not, which intensified the animosity between the two gangs.
“The gang war also pertained to a dispute over a railways contract,” DSP Singh said.
Vinod avenged his men’s deaths in 2014 by killing Lal Bahadur and was among the 11 accused in that case. He was also involved in another brutal murder of a Nepali criminal, Jeet Narayan Mishra, who had slapped him in the Gorakhpur jail in 2004.
According to an STF officer, Vinod was released on bail and Jeet Narayan was transferred to Basti jail. After Narayan got bail on 7 August, 2005, him and his brother-in-law Gorelal were on their way to Sant Kabir Nagar when assailants opened fire on them, the officer said, adding that Jeet Narayan and Gorelal were killed “within seconds”.
“In most cases, Vinod would himself carry out the shooting,” DSP Singh added.
Vinod’s gang members were also accused of kidnapping and assaulting Sunil Singh, a Hindu Yuva Vahini leader. An FIR was lodged against them but no action was taken.
In March 2007, Vinod’s name came up in the murder of Afzal Faizi, a Samajwadi Party councillor from Tiwaripur area of Gorakhpur, who was killed near the Shri Ram Tower of Hazratganj, according to police records. “But since Tiwari was protecting him, he continued to evade the law for a very long time,” another senior UP Police officer told ThePrint.
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BSP leader to exit from politics
Vinod grew closer to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2000s and the party formally made him in charge of Gorakhpur on account of his reported proximity to a top Brahmin leader of the party. In 2007, Vinod made his foray into electoral politics contesting the assembly poll from the Gorakhpur Sadar seat.
According to media reports, BSP chief Mayawati herself sought support for him in a public meeting in Gorakhpur but Vinod could only make it to the fourth spot. BJP’s Radha Mohan Das Agarwal won the seat, a second time, that year.
Later, Mayawati expelled Vinod from the party after a case was lodged against him and his brothers for allegedly threatening and beating up policemen at Kauwa Bag police chowki.
For the past two years, the Gorakhpur administration has been cracking down on Vinod’s properties. So far, the administration has vacated several properties belonging to the Gorakhpur Development Authority from his illegal possession, along with bulldozing several of his illegal constructions worth crores, according to reports.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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