Cuttack: Deadly criminal SK Hyder was killed in a police encounter at Simulia of Balasore district on Saturday.
For security reasons, the gangster was being shifted to Baripada Jail in Mayurbhanj district amid tight security, consisting of an IIC, one sub-inspector, three havildars and a section of armed force.
The encounter took place while an escort party of the Cuttack police was shifting Hyder from Choudwar Circle Jail to the sub-jail at Baripada, said Police Commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi.
On the midway, near Simulia, Hyder requested the security personnel to stop for a while to attend nature’s call.
“After getting down from the police van, he tried to snatch the gun from the sub-inspector and flee. To control the situation, the escort team opened fire on him. One bullet hit him in the stomach and another in the leg. He was then rushed to the district headquarters hospital in Balasore in a critical state,” Priyadarshi said.
However, no police official was injured in the incident, the Police Commissioner said.
Following the incident, the criminal was rushed to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) in Balasore in a critical condition. Additional District Medical Officer (ADMO) of the DHH Balaosre, Mrutyunjay Mishra said that the gangster died five minutes after being admitted to the hospital before the doctors could start his treatment.
The details of the number of bullets fired on him will be clear only after the postmortem, Mishra said.
In April this year, Hyder escaped from police custody while undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College in Cuttack. Following a massive manhunt, he was arrested from Telangana.
Though it is difficult to imagine the portly Hyder as a gangster, he was a renowned name in Odisha’s underworld in the late 90s due to his ability to execute crimes.
In 2005, he became a known name in the underworld after killing Sk Chuna, brother of his friend-turned-foe Suleiman. He was arrested from Nagpur for the murder and was awarded life imprisonment in 2011.
Hyder was again arrested and later sentenced to life in 2015 over kidnapping and murder of mines trader Rashmi Ranjan Mahapatra.
