Prime accused notorious for taking policemen head-on
KANPUR/LUCKNOW: History-sheeter Vikas Dubey, 48, who along with his shooters killed eight cops during an ambush in Bikru village in Kanpur Dehat early on Friday never allowed the police to raid his village where he lives in a sprawling house surrounded by his supporters.
Whenever the police attempted a raid, it faced stiff resistance and had to beat a hasty retreat from the village.
This is not the first time Vikas Dubey has taken the police head-on.
In the past two decades, there have been four major encounters when the police were fired upon indiscriminately or were taken captive and released after the interventions of Dubey’s political bosses who always walked an extra mile to save him, said those who know him and his working.
In 2005, in a similar incident, Dubey and his men surrounded a raiding circle officer Kalyanpur, Abdul Samad, fired at his team and then held him captive. It was Dubey’s mother who convinced him to release the men as she feared the cops would avenge this humiliation.
Such was his political clout that the complaint of the circle officer was not registered at Shivli police station. Not only this, Vikas Dubey slapped the visiting DIG (prisons) in Kanpur jail after the officer rebuked his boss Ranga Yadav and him in 2000 when he was arrested for murder of a principal Siddheshwar Pandey, recalled a police officer who pursued him. Then he had the entire Kalyanpur police station gheraoed when by chance sub inspector Hari Om Sharma arrested him.
Not only the people, two MLAs sat on a dharna outside, seeking his release.
With nearly three decades of criminal history Dubey, 48, harboured criminals on the run in his fortress established in Bikru village, patronised young shooters and provided them illegal firearms, said police officials aware of his past history.
The officials said Dubey used this force of criminals to grab land, influence local elections and extort money from property dealers and businessmen as well as eliminate his rivals. Dubey remained associated with several politicians of the region, they added.
A senior police official at DGP headquarters said although Dubey had remained involved in crime since teenage, the crime record available with the police had as many as 60 criminal cases against him since 1993. “His crime record reads that he had over 11 cases of attempt to murder and six cases of murder but he had remain involved in over 20 murders directly or indirectly and harboured shooters involved in different murders in the region,” he said.
The official said Dubey’s house in Bikru, termed as his fortress, had a campus of over 10,000 square ft. The house was designed in such a manner that one could easily keep watch for up to 500 metres from the rooftop, he said. Moreover, he had informers in the entire village.
The official said, “His bravado can be gauged from the murder of politician Santosh Shukla, who had a post equivalent to minister of state, in 2001. Dubey chased Shukla and shot him inside Shivli police station when the latter tried to hide there.”
Later, Dubey was acquitted in the case after all witnesses, including police personnel, turned hostile, he said.
When Vikas Dubey was a student of class nine in Rasoolabad Inter College he carried a country-made-pistol in his school bag, recalls a classmate living in Kanpur Dehat. He was asked to leave the school.
In 2006, he was arrested in Saharanpur on charges of possessing drugs.