Muzaffarnagar: A notorious serial rapist and former member of the Chhota Rajan gang, Satpal alias Sattu, died on Tuesday afternoon from injuries sustained during a fierce gunfight with the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Special Operations Group (SOG) in Muzaffarnagar district. The dramatic midnight encounter also led to the rescue of a minor girl whom the fugitive had abducted last week.
The high-stakes confrontation unfolded at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Monday along the Bamanhedi-Roorkee road within the Civil Lines police station limits. A joint team of local police and SOG operatives were conducting a specialized vehicle checking campaign when they intercepted a suspicious sedan. Upon being signaled to stop, Satpal, who was behind the wheel, realized he was surrounded and opened heavy fire on the law enforcement personnel. In the ensuing exchange of bullets, Sub-Inspector Ajay Gaur and Constable Ankit sustained gunshot wounds, while Satpal was critically injured after being hit twice—once in the leg and once above the waist. The police team immediately rushed all injured individuals to a nearby district hospital, from where Satpal was referred to a higher medical centre in Meerut as his condition deteriorated rapidly due to excessive blood loss. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead by doctors at around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
The operation has brought to an end a multi-state manhunt for the dangerous fugitive, who carried a bounty of 25,000 rupees on his head and was actively pursued by police forces across four states and one union territory. Satpal, originally a resident of Chandigarh, had a sprawling criminal history spanning over two decades, with more than two dozen registered cases involving murder, armed robbery, extortion, rape, and gang rape. He had previously spent roughly 15 years incarcerated in various prisons before executing a daring escape from police custody in February 2026. The escape occurred while he was being escorted from Ludhiana Central Jail to a local civil hospital for a medical examination, where he took advantage of a heavy rush in the outpatient department to slip away from his guards.
Following his escape from Punjab, Satpal had been hiding out in western Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring regions, where he continued to perpetrate heinous crimes. Law enforcement officials revealed that over the past four months, the deceased had targeted and abducted at least ten minor girls across several districts in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab, subjecting them to sexual assault. The breakthrough in tracking him down came after a resident of Muzaffarnagar filed a formal complaint on June 19, stating that an unidentified individual in a car had abducted his minor daughter. Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Verma had established ten dedicated police teams to solve the case, analyzing footage from over 1,000 CCTV cameras across the region to identify the vehicle and pinpoint Satpal’s movements, ultimately culminating in the midnight ambush and the girl’s safe rescue.
