August 1, 1998: A 15–year–old, reportedly entirely innocent, Sanjay Jaiswal, was shot dead in a police encounter at Rai Barelli.

August 9, 1998: A woman, Ramkeshi, was shot dead in a police encounter in Bakevar in Ittava, after which the police tried to make it out that she was a dacoit. Following a strong public protest, 15 policemen were suspended from service.

July 25, 1998: Five dehadi Muslim workers — Saleem, Nafeez, Sajjid, Nanhe and Farmood — were shot dead one after another at Lodhpur village near Muzaffarnagar. Hailing from Meerut, they were headed for Balipua village when the taxi they were travelling in broke down. Near Lodhpur, a village notorious for dacoits, villagers mobbed them and informed the local police station. A police patrol led by inspector K.K. Gautam, which was passing by promptly swung into action, took the youths to a deserted spot and shot them one by one at point blank range. Now the police find themselves in a spot because barring Salim, none of the five have any police record.

July 6, 1998: Ishrat Ali, a Samajwadi party activist of Kanpur, was shot dead by the police in Barabanki. He had no criminal cases against him. No action was taken as the police claimed that he was killed in an encounter. Ali’s sister, Nafisa has filed a murder case against inspector S.S. Shukla.

July 9, 1998: Zafar Qureshi, a mango–seller of Chajupur village in Ghaziabad district was beaten to death on charges of being a mango thief. The police claim that he died in an encounter. A magisterial enquiry has been ordered.

July 8, 1998: Following inquiries made by the father of 14–year–old Sunil from the local police after he was found missing, it transpired that the teenager had been tortured to death in a barbaric fashion by the police. The father, Anand, a garbage picker died of grief two days later, on July 10, 1998.

July 8, 1998: Ramsukh Singh of Barabanki was tortured to death by the police on suspicion that he was in league with auto–lifters. Case shown as suicide. Earlier, his wife and 10–year–old son were arrested. No action taken.

June 1998: Arjun Bahela, a Dalit labourer from Buxi ka Talab in Lucknow, accused of petty crimes in the past, was shot dead in early June. Investigations are underway.

June 15, 1998: A resident of Jadopur village in Allahabad district, Mohamed Naseem was shot dead in a police encounter at 9 a.m. in the morning.

June 1998: Five Dalits including Umesh Sonkar, Pintu Sonkar and Ramashankar Sonkar were killed in a police encounter.

May 31, 1998: Ramkishore, a Dalit youth, was killed in police custody of Budhiapur in Barabanki district for eloping with a cousin. The police claimed the case as suicide. The inspector and sub–inspector suspended on charges of dereliction of duty, not murder.

April 28, 1998: Sukhsagar was murdered by poisoning while in the custody of the local police in the Shivali thana in the Kanpur rural district.

(Sources: India Today, August 1998 and Teesri Duniya, September 1998)