BHOPAL: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday detained gangster Vikas Dubey's brother-in-law from Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol district, a local police officer said.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh STF also took the son of Dubeys brother-in-law into their custody on Monday, Shahdols Additional Superintendent of Police Pratima Mathew told PTI.
"Raju Nigam, who is Vikas Dubey's brother-in-law (brother of Dubey's wife), and his son Adarsh have been taken into custody by the UP STF," she said.
The Uttar Pradesh government has increased the reward for the arrest of gangster Vikas Dubey, involved in gunning down eight police personnel, from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, officials said on Wednesday.
"Cash reward for the arrest of Vikas Dubey has been increased to Rs 5 lakh. It would be given to those providing information about him," Additional Chief Secretary, Awanish Kumar Awasthi said.
Nigam was living in Shahdol district's Budhar town since the past 12 years, she said, adding that the UP STF took the action after informing the local police.
After his son was nabbed, Nigam told reporters on Tuesday that he was not in touch with Dubey for the past 15 years, and feared he and his son could be booked in a fake case and killed in an encounter.
Three persons close to Dubey have been arrested from Haryana's Faridabad in a joint operation by Uttar Pradesh STF and local crime branch team, a senior official said here on Wednesday.
Dubey was in Faridabad and had tried to take a room in a hotel, whose CCTV footage went viral, the official said.
"Three persons close to Vikas Dubey arrested from Faridabad. They were identified as Ankur, Shravan and Kartikey alias Prabhat," a senior official told PTI.
Eight policemen were ambushed at Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district when they were going to arrest Vikas Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after Friday midnight.
The STF also on Wednesday killed an aide of gangster Vikas Dubey in Hamirpur and arrested another following an encounter in Kanpur for their alleged role in last week's Bikru ambush wherein eight policemen died, a senior officer said.
Two policemen were injured in the encounter in Hamirpur.
"Amar Dubey, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, was killed in an encounter in Maudaha village in Hamirpur district," STF IG Amitabh Yash told PTI.
Superintendent of Police, Hamirpur Shlok Kumar said, "Acting on a tip off, a team of STF and local police surrounded Amar and he was injured in the firing and died during treatment in the hospital."
Two policemen including an Inspector from Maudaha and an STF constable were injured in the encounter.
An automatic weapon used to fire at police and a bag was recovered from the spot, the SP said.
Amar Dubey is the third member of Vikas Dubey's gang to be killed in an encounter with the police.
In a separate encounter, hours after Amar Dubey was gunned down, another associate of Vikas Dubey -- Shyamu Bajpai was arrested in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur.
"Aide of Vikas, Shyamu Bajpai was arrested after an encounter with police in Chaubeypur area. Bajpai, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 sustained bullet injury on his leg," SHO Chaubeypur K M Rai told PTI.
IG STF, said, "STF was tracking all those named in the FIR and wherever we get information we are taking help of local police. We are also trying to trace weapons of policemen taken away from the spot and also weapons used by the criminals to attack the police force."
About the delay in the arrest of Vikas Dubey, the IG said, "He is a hardened criminal and was used to hiding so it is taking time but we will surely nab him. We have started getting success."
Another two associates of Vikay Dubey -- Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey were killed by police in an encounter in Kanpur on Friday.
Vikas Dubey's close relative Shama, neighbour Suresh Verma and domestic help Rekha and her husband Dayashankar Agnihotri, a key member of Dubey's gang, were arrested by police.
Agnihotri was arrested on Sunday after an encounter in which police shot him in the leg.
On Tuesday, all 68 personnel of the Chaubeypur Police Station were shunted to the reserve police lines amid doubts over their professional integrity.
The announcement was made soon after police transferred Anand Deo, DIG STF, who till recently was the Senior Superintendent of Police in Kanpur.
Deo was transferred to the Provincial Armed Police (PAC) unit in Moradabad.
Deo was the Kanpur SSP in March when Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra purportedly wrote a damning letter, which surfaced on the social media after he was killed in the Bikru ambush.
The unverified letter to the then Kanpur SSP alleged that Chaubeypur station officer Vinay Tiwari had watered down an FIR lodged against the gangster.
It suggested that Tiwari and Dubey were close.
However, police said there is no record of the purported letter, which is undated and carries no serial number.
Deo also said that the signature on it does not match that of the slain officer.
But police said they will still investigate the letter.
Lucknow Range IG Lakshmi Singh is probing the matter.
Police have named 21 people in the FIR registered after the attack.
The FIR also mentioned 50-60 unidentified people.
Earlier, the Kanpur Police had released the photos of 15 criminals including Amar Dubey who were said to be close to Vikas Dubey.
Posters carrying the pictures of the alleged criminals, most of them carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 for their arrest, were put up at road toll plazas, including those in Unnao, Kanpur Nagar, Auraiya, Fatehpur and areas near the India-Nepal border.
(With PTI Inputs)