Man accused of raping, impregnating minor arrested after gunfight with cops in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: A 25-year-old man wanted for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl was shot at and arrested after the latest gunfight with police in Loni Border early on Monday.Cops were on the lookout for Siraj after the minor’s father filed a complaint on May 30 stating his daughter had been raped three months earlier, leaving her pregnant.On Monday, as a patrol unit from Loni Border police station was conducting checks on the Sevadhaam-Teelamod Road stretch, Siraj was spotted on a scooter. When officers moved to stop him, he opened fire and fled towards GDA Ground, police claimed. As cops gave him a chase and surrounded him, he fired again. Police fired back in self-defence, hitting Siraj in the right calf. He was taken to a nearby hospital and is stable.A country-made .315 bore pistol, one live cartridge, one spent cartridge case, and the scooter were recovered from him, ACP Loni and Ankur Vihar Siddharth Gautam said.Monday’s encounter is the latest in a sustained pattern of armed confrontations between Ghaziabad police and criminal suspects. Between Jan 2024 and May 13, 2026, a total of 309 gunfights were recorded in the district, leaving 367 suspects injured, 10 dead, and 11 police personnel with bullet wounds.In the first four-and-a-half months of 2026 alone, 26 gunfights took place, injuring 26 suspects and killing five — among them two masterminds of a cash van heist.Before Monday’s encounter, Asad (19), a prime suspect in the stabbing of a 17-year-old boy in Khoda Colony on Bakrid, was tracked to Vasundhara and shot in the leg during a gunfight with police early on Sunday. He died in a hospital later. On May 13, two of the six suspects behind the daylight robbery of a cash-loading van in Crossings Republik were shot dead in a late-night encounter on Dasna Road after opening fire on police teams moving to intercept them. Zubair Ahmad and Sameer Khan, both residents of Vijay Nagar, were identified by police as the masterminds of the May 6 heist.Across UP, police have conducted 17,043 encounters since 2017, killing 289 criminals and injuring 11,834 others, according to official figures released on Sunday. A total of 34,253 people were arrested in these operations; 18 police personnel were killed and 1,852 injured. Meerut zone recorded the highest number of encounters at 4,813, with 8,921 criminals arrested and 3,513 injured.