New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister and Nishad Party President, Sanjay Nishad on Tuesday slammed Opposition parties over politicising the encounter of a criminal in Ghazipur.

Speaking to IANS, Sanjay Nishad rubbished the Opposition’s charges of using state power as a tool to harass the ‘weak and oppressed’ and said that they were deliberately trying to stoke a controversy.

The wanted criminal in question carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh on his head.

Nishad stated, “Caste does not apply to criminals. When someone commits a crime, they do not see caste.”

“If a criminal tries to escape, they may be shot. Therefore, the Opposition should stand with the public instead of commenting on this matter,” he added.

Nishad’s statements come in light of the Opposition accusing the BJP of using encounters as a tool to harass the oppressed and minorities.

Sanjay Nishad also recalled an incident from 2015 during the Samajwadi Party government when Akhilesh Nishad was killed by the police during a protest in Gorakhpur.

The Cabinet Minister pointed out that a false case of murder (302) was also registered against him.

Nishad questioned, “What action did the Samajwadi Party take at that time? Nothing. Many encounters happened back then, but they did not speak out.”

On Monday night, the police and Noida Special Task Force conducted a joint operation in Ghazipur and shot dead a wanted criminal, Mohammad Zahid.

In this encounter, two police officers were also injured.

Zahid was accused of smuggling liquor and was also involved in the murder of two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, Javed Khan and Pramod Kumar.

On the night of August 19, RPF Constables Javed Khan and Pramod were attempting to stop illegal liquor smuggling on the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train when the smugglers assaulted them and pushed them off the moving train, resulting in their deaths.

Mohammad Zahid was wanted in connection with this case, and a reward of Rs 1 lakh had been announced for his capture.