LUCKNOW: Notorious and most wanted gangster Vikas Dubey, the main accused for killing eight police personnel in Kanpur last week, was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) while on way to Kanpur from Ujjain on Friday morning.
In a dramatic turn of events, Dubey was arrested near Mahakal temple in Ujjain on Thursday.
According to the police, he was killed while trying to escape after snatching a pistol from the investigating officer, Inspector Ramakant Pachauri, who was escorting Dubey back to the car which
had overturned around 2.5 km away from Kanpur.
He was rushed to the hospital where the doctors declared him 'dead' upon arrival.
Confirming Dubey’s killing, Kanpur SP Dinesh Kumar P claimed that due to heavy downpour, one of the three vehicles of the convoy in which Dubey was being brought back to Kanpur, skid in Barra, a place 2.5 km away from the city of Kanpur.
“The car overturned after hitting a divider. Taking advantage of the situation, the criminal snatched the pistol from an injured inspector and tried to escape while firing at the accompanying cops,” said Kanpur SP Dinesh Kumar P.
Additional Director General of police Kanpur, Jai Narain Singh, claimed that the police asked him to surrender but he continued to fire at them.
Then the cops retaliated and Vikas Dubey along with four cops got injured in the crossfire.
The ADG further added that Dubey and all the four cops were rushed to Hallet Hospital in Kanpur.
The cops, who were injured in the firing included Nawabganj Inspector Ramakant Pachauri, the investigation officer, an assistant sub-inspector and two constables.
The dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey was carrying a reward of Rs five lakh on information leading to his arrest
Eight police personnel in Kanpur's Bikru village were killed last Thursday and Dubey was on the run since then.
He had covered a distance of 1,200 km from Chaubeypur to Ujjain across five states in six days. After staying in Shivli in Kanpur for two days after the massacre, he went to Auraiyya, then to Delhi, to Faridabad in Haryana finally reaching Ujjain via Kota and Jhalawar in Rajasthan dodging the police force of five states despite high alert all across.
However, opposition parties raised fingers on the manner in which he was caught and whether it was an arrest or a surrender by the criminal at the time and place of his choice.
A large team of policemen who went to Dubey's Bikru village to arrest him were caught by surprise when there was indiscriminate firing from rooftops. Eight policemen were killed in the ambush.
The UP administration tore down Dubey's house and launched a massive hunt for him. Over the last week, five of Dubey's accomplices were killed.
However, Dubey had allegedly admitted to his crime during an eight-hour interrogation by Ujjain police after his arrest on Thursday. He had reportedly confessed that he and his henchmen ambushed the police party on the night of July 2-3 fearing his own encounter.
During the custodial interrogation, gangster Dubey had allegedly revealed that he had stored gallons full of oil in his house in Bikru village before the arrival of police party on fateful night with the intention of burning the bodies of deceased cops to destroy evidence.
He claimed that after killing the cops, his aides had stacked all the bodies at one place and were about to burn them down but failed as more reinforcement had reached.
He had admitted to his personal rivalry with martyred CO Billhaur Devendra Mishra but denied killing him himself. He allegedly revealed that the CO was killed by a gunshot fired from point blank range by one of his aides Praveen Dubey who severed his legs of the Co after killing him.
Praveen Dubey was also killed in a police encounter in Etawah on July 9.