Manhunt for Kanpur gangster Dubey reaches Delhi doorstep
FARIDABAD/LUCKNOW/NOIDA: A manhunt for Vikas Dubey, the UP gangster sought for the July 3 ambush that killed eight policemen, shifted to the National Capital Region on Wednesday even as police teams separately shot dead one of his top aides and arrested eight others – including two policemen – for helping or sheltering him.
On Tuesday, Dubey was spotted at a hotel in Faridabad, the first time his whereabouts was known in what has been a game of cat and mouse since his escape from the scene of the predawn gunfight in a village near Kanpur last week.
In NCR, security was increased in Noida after reports poured in about Dubey planning to surrender at the studio of a TV news channel.
LUCKNOW: After the ambush in which eight police personnel were killed early on July 3, gangster Vikas Dubey used different modes of transport, including motorcycles, an SUV, sandladen trucks and taxis, to escape from his house in Kanpur’s Bikru village to Faridabad, Haryana, where he was reportedly spotted last on Tuesday, said police officials privy to the investigation.
Officials said Dubey was in Faridabad till Tuesday afternoon and had left a hotel, the CCTV footage of which went viral on the social media on Wednesday.
Police officials said the initial investigation hinted that Dubey and his close accomplices used motorcycles to escape from Bikru as they opted to travel on the narrow, interior village to reach their next destination: an accomplice’s residence in Kanpur’s Shivli area. From here, they arranged for an SUV to leave Kanpur two days later. The vehicle was later found abandoned in Auraiya on Sunday.
“Had they escaped in the highend SUVs that were found parked at his village house, they would have had to take the main route. Instead, they opted for interior roads as they knew that the police force would retaliate with more firepower after coming to know their men were killed in the ambush,” a senior official said.
Those in the know of things in the police department said initial findings suggested that Dubey and the others and travelled on motorcycles for around five kilometres before hopping into an SUV arranged by their aides to escape from Kanpur. They said the assailants travelled in the
SUV from Kanpur to Auraiya before abandoning it.
They said the killers changed their blood stained clothes and boarded red sand-laden trucks that are often spotted moving on roads from Hamirpur towards Delhi in the early hours. They said Dubey reached Faridabad on Friday after boarding one of such trucks coming from Hamirpur and going to Delhi via Agra, Mathura through Palwal.
“He knew that no policemen would intercept sand-laden trucks and this mode of transport is the safest to travel from Auraiya to Delhi,” a source said.
He said the truck was later traced to a roadside eatery on an expressway in Faridabad on Monday. The driver was questioned about Dubey’s whereabouts. They said Dubey stayed for around two days at his relative’s place in Faridabad before moving to a hotel room at Badkhal Chowk.
He reportedly stayed in a hotel room for two days before leaving it a few hours before the police team conducted a raid there, they added.
A Faridabad police official said Dubey was reportedly spotted in CCTV footage outside the hotel at Badkhal Chowk from where he boarded an auto to move ahead. He said Dubey travelled in autos and taxis during his stay in Faridabad and left the hotel after boarding a tempo. He said the accused was seen carrying two bags while boarding the tempo from outside the hotel.