Lucknow, Nov. 7: India’s most wanted bandit Nirbhay Gujjar, known as the Veerappan of Chambal, was gunned down tonight, police said.

The 55-year-old dacoit, wanted in 90 cases in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and who carried a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, was shot dead in an encounter in a village close to a ravine near Etawah, about 230 km from here, the police added.

According to officials, Nirbhay and his last remaining associates were holed up in the village when a special task force team circled them.

Around 8.30 pm, the task force spread out in the village posing as dwellers. “He was killed following an hour-long gunbattle. One body was identified as that of Nirbhay Gujjar. We are getting other details,” director-general of police Yashpal Singh said.

“As many as 60 police personnel were involved in the encounter,” Etawah senior superintendent of police Daljit Singh Chauhan said. He added that at least five policemen were injured.

Nirbhay’s gang, which thrived on kidnappings and extortion, was reduced to 12 from 75 members following a split and desertion by his adopted son Shyam Jatav.

Shyam, kidnapped when he was nine years old by Nirbhay in Delhi, was eventually adopted by the dacoit and made the second-in-command of the gang. The tide turned against Nirbhay when Shyam surrendered last year and began providing vital leads to the police.

Seema Parihar, Nirbhay’s first wife who featured in a film on her life, told The Telegraph over phone from Etawah: “I saw this coming. It is a sad end to his life. I thought he would have survived had he surrendered early without any condition. I told him that too. But he did not listen.”

Nirbhay had made several appeals in vain to the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to let him surrender.