A dreaded dacoit, who had held a strong posse of 400 Uttar Pradesh policemen on tenterhooks for over 52 hours, was today shot dead here but not before police lost four of its men.

Ghanshyam Kewat, carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head and had been a terror in the area dotted by forests on the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border, had fled from a house in Jamuali village from where he was firing indiscriminately at the police, but was surrounded by the force and gunned down.

Several policemen were also injured in the encounter in which men of the special task force were also involved. IG V K Gupta and DIG S K Singh, who headed the operation, were among those injured.

"Ghanshyam Kewat has been shot dead by the UP police," State Police Chief Vikram Singh said but did not rule out the possibility of more dacoits having helped him.

He said though Kewat was has been killed in a gunbattle outside the village, the encounter has not ended as there may be more dacoits hiding at the place in Rajapur area, 120 kms from Allahabad.

Singh said that the efforts of the Uttar Pradesh police has paid dividends as the dacoit was liquidated by securitymen, who adopted a three-pronged strategy - to ensure no civilian casualty, minimum police casualty and minimum loss to property of civilians.