LUCKNOW: With gangster Vikas Dubey still away from police net even after 36 hours of the incident which claimed lives of 8 police personnel, Kanpur district and police authorities bulldozed the house of the dreaded criminal and suspended station officer at Chaubeypur police station Inspector Vinay Tiwari.
Tiwari was suspended on Saturday for dereliction of duty during the operation against Dubey on Thursday, he has also been detained by the UP STF for interrogation.
As per Kanpur IG, Mohti Agarwal, Tiwari was suspended on the suspicion of having played an informer to Dubey ahead of Thursday operation.
Eight police personnel, including a circle officer in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, three sub-inspectors and four constables were martyred during a past midnight operation against history-sheeter Vikas Dubey in Bikru village under the Chaubeypur police station area in Kanpur on late Thursday night.
Dubey has around 60 criminal cases lodged against him.
As per the official sources, UP DGP HC Awasthi, ADG (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar and IG STF Amitabh Yash, have been camping in Kanpur to supervise the combing operations conducted to nab the criminal at the earliest; the authorities got Vikas Dubey’s house in Bikru village demolished with the same earthmover machine which he used to block the access road for the cops to protect his one-storey house.
Two of his SUVs—a Scorpio and a Fortuner—were also destroyed in the action, according to officials. A source in the police department claimed that the initial inquiry hinted that Dubey was well-informed in advance of the police raid at his house and was prepared to deal with it.
Dubey was apparently tipped off by his men in the police department about the force from three police stations in Bilhaur, Bithoor and Chaubeypur moving towards his village.
The killings of the cops have prompted a massive combing operation involving Vikas Dubey, 48, who now carries a cash reward of Rs 50,000 on his head. “To nab Vikas Dubey and his accomplices, as many as 25 teams have been formed which are conducting raids in different districts of the state and other states as well,” Mohit Agarwal, inspector general of police, Kanpur, said on Saturday.
The police authorities have suspicious of Inspector Vinay Tiwari who had been manning the Chaubeypur police station. After his suspension, Kanpur IG Mohit Agarwal claimed that initial inquiry points the needle of suspicion on Tiwari who was alleged to have informed the gangster ahead of the raid at his residence instead of rounding him up.
Agarwal said that if need be, a criminal case would be lodged against Tiwari and if his role in alerting the criminal would be ascertained at any level, he would be dismissed from the service with immediate effect and be arrested.
At the same time, the investigators had put around 500 mobile phones even remotely connected with Dubey on electronic surveillance to track his movements. The STF sources, however, have revealed that Inspector Vinay Tiwari had gone to Vikas Dubey’s house in connection with the complaint of attempt to murder under Section 307 of IPC lodged against him.
Dubey had allegedly thrashed the complainant Rahul Tiwari in front of inspector Vinay Tiwari badly at his residence in Bikru village on Wednesday. When Inspector Tiwari tried to palcate Dubey, the criminal snatched his mobile phone and also misbehaved the cop. The situation turned ugly and ended up in a scuffle between inspector Tiwari and Dubey.
Following this, Inspector Tiwari returned to his police station. Subsequently, on Thursday, he lodged the FIR against Dubey on the basis of one Rahul Tiwari under section 307 of IPC. That followed the police raid by a team of 50 cops led by Billhaur CO Devendra Mishra who was martyred in the operation.
However, during operation on Thursday, Inspector Vinay Tiwari, in-charge of Chaubeypur police station under which Bikru village falls, avoided leading the police party despite being knowledgable with the demography of the village.
At one point of time, he even tried to hide behind the earthmoving machine. Inspector Tiwari’s reluctance to lead the team during the operation led the STF to have suspicion on his role following which he was suspended and detained for interrogation.
The sources even claimed that the STF had procured Dubey’s call detail report (CDR) and on the basis of it, a sub-inspector, a constable and a home guard under Chaubeypur police station were on the STF radar.