UP ATS Encounter Kills Wanted TPC Commander Brijesh Ganjhu Near Lanka Maidan

An early Sunday operation on the Ramnagar side of the city ended with the death of a Jharkhand-based commander long sought by multiple agencies, police said.

Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad officers identified the deceased as Brijesh Ganjhu, also known as Gopal Singh Bhokta, a senior figure in the banned Tritiya Prastuti Committee. The encounter, as narrated by ATS Deputy Superintendent of Police Vipin Rai, took place in the Lanka Maidan belt under Ramnagar police station limits while Ganjhu and an associate were moving on a motorcycle from the Tengra Mor side toward Mughalsarai.

According to Rai, the team acted on specific tip-off information received overnight. When officers signalled the duo to stop, Ganjhu allegedly jumped from the motorcycle and opened fire. The ATS returned fire. Ganjhu was hit, rushed to hospital and declared dead. His associate fled and remains at large, police said.

Bullets struck the bulletproof jackets of DSP Rai and Head Constable Nitendra Krishna during the exchange. Both men escaped injury, the squad said. Further legal formalities, including the usual magisterial process that follows police firing, were set in motion after the body was shifted for post-mortem formalities.

Jharkhand Police Inspector General (Operations) and spokesperson Narendra Singh confirmed that state police had been informed the same morning that Ganjhu had been killed in Varanasi. Agencies had listed a combined reward of ₹30 lakh on information leading to his arrest — ₹25 lakh from the Jharkhand government and ₹5 lakh from the National Investigation Agency.

Police descriptions place more than fifty cases against him across Chatra and other Jharkhand districts, spanning alleged murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, arms offences and provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was also named in NIA matters, officers said. Those case lists are allegations and prior chargesheets; they are not fresh findings from Sunday’s firing.

Recoveries claimed at the spot included two pistols, a carbine, live and spent ammunition and about ₹1 lakh in cash. Independent verification of the seizure inventory will rest with the investigating court papers once they are filed.

For Varanasi, the geography matters. Ramnagar’s eastern approaches have long been a transit corridor toward Chandauli and the Mughalsarai–PDDU side. Sunday’s account places the confrontation on that familiar edge of the commissionerate rather than in the dense old city.

Nothing in the police briefings available on Monday morning suggested injuries to civilians. The associate’s escape keeps the investigation open. Until charge-sheets and the magisterial enquiry are on record, the sequence remains the ATS version of a contested interception that turned into a fatal exchange of fire.

Ramnagar police station limits stretch across a busy eastern fringe where city traffic meets the highway edge toward Chandauli. Lanka Maidan is not a sealed cantonment; it is an open approach that sees motorcycle traffic at odd hours. That geography helps explain why a transit tip could turn into a confrontation before dawn.

Police versions of encounters are routinely tested later by magisterial enquiry and, where families contest the narrative, by court process. Monday’s public account should be read in that light: a named deceased, named officers, a claimed seizure list and an absconding associate — all still inside the investigative pipeline.