‘Crash, escape, encounter ’: Dubey saga ends in UP field
Police say he climbed out of vehicle, snatched pistol, shot at cops; doubts raised, probe demanded
KANPUR/LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Police shot dead Vikas Dubey early on Friday during what they said was a botched escape attempt, capping a dramatic week-long saga that began with the killing of eight policemen in Kanpur, triggered a fiveday long manhunt through four states, and involved the killing of five accomplices of the gangster and the arrest of 20 others.
The manner of the accident, the attempt to flee, and the encounter, however, sparked accusations that the incident was staged, and politicians, former police officers and advocacy groups demanded a probe, contending that the police version of what happened did not add up.
Dubey was being driven from Ujjain, where he was taken into custody on Thursday, in an over 12-hour journey to his hometown in Kanpur, where he and his men killed eight of a police squad in the early hours of July 3.
Around 6:30am, as the convoy of three police SUVs reached the outskirts of Kanpur, police said that the vehicle — a Mahindra TUV 300 — Dubey was in lost control and crashed.
In the police’s retelling of the incident, Dubey managed to climb out of the vehicle, and run down a kachha country road leading to open fields; he was chased by policemen who were part of the convoy, surrounded, and asked to surrender.
The gangster, however, fired multiple rounds at the police team instead of giving himself up, leading to the police shooting him down.
“After the car overturned, Vikas Dubey tried to snatch weapons from the police and he attempted to flee after which there was retaliatory fire by the police in which he was injured,” said Prashant Kumar, the additional director general of police, law and order, told reporters. “He was declared dead after being
taken to hospital,” he added.
Three policemen, including SHO Nawabgunj Ramakant Pachauri were injured in the firing by the criminal, police said.
Dubey was shot dead nearly a kilometre from the accident site, according to the Uttar Pradesh police’s special task force. He was last spotted in videos taken at the Bara toll booth on the outskirts of Kanpur. He was in a Tata Safari at the time.
Minutes before the accident that led to his killing, a group of mediapersons who were following the convoy were stopped at police check posts. Police later
told reporters it was a “routine check”.
A former director general in the Kerala Police, NC Asthana, said he could point to glaring loopholes in the police’s story about the sequence of events.
“The car overturned but one cannot see any skid marks near the vehicle. The street was wet but there were no skid marks. It is impossible that Dubey was the first person to be able to come out of the car after it overturned. Were there police officers inside the car? Why did the police not handcuff him if he was a notorious gangster? Also, why would
Dubey try to flee in a place where there were only open fields all around? And above all Dubey’s mask was intact despite the accident, running and the shootout.”
On the run since he engineered the massacre of eight policemen at his village Bikru on July 3, Dubey was first spotted in the National Capital Region on July 7 after his escape. On July 9, he was arrested from Mahakaal temple in Ujjain, where he is said to have been spotted by a street-side vendor, although some officials said he may have come forward on his own.
› A probe under the Supreme Court should be done into the killing of the policemen and then overturning of the car ... and Vikas Dubey’s killing by the UP police
MAYAWATI, Bahujan Samaj Party chief
LUCK NOW: Opposition parties have criticised the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government over gangster Vikas Du be y’ s killing on Friday morning — after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in the July 3 killing of eight policemen in Kanpur — suggesting this was a move to protect the “politics-crime nexus” in the state, and demanded a probe.
The UP police claimed Dubey was killed when he tried to flee after a car bringing him from Madhya Pradesh, where he was arrested on Thursday, overturned.
In a series of tweets, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati underlined the necessity for a high-level probe for justice. “A probe under the Supreme Court should be done into the killing of the policemen and then overturning of the car in which the UP [Ut tar Pradesh] police were bringing the heinous criminal Vikas Du bey ... and Du be y’ s killing by the police,” she said.
Mayawati added a high-level probe is necessary for justice to the families of the policemen, and to identify the nexus between“police and criminal politics” and for the strongest of punishment for those involved.
Another former CM, Akhilesh Yadav, who heads the Samajwadi Party, said in a tweet: “It is not the
car that overturned, the government saved itself from overturningby preventing the secrets from coming out.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress’s general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge, raised questions about Dubey’s protectors.“Fine, the criminal[ Du bey] is dead but what about those who protected him and his crime?” she tweeted. In Delhi, Congress’ chief spokesperson Ran deep S ur jew ala said :“Who are the people sitting in the echelons of power, who were protecting criminals like Vikas Dubey? What is the connection of Vikas Dubey, what are the secrets or the beans that he was about to spill of those sitting in the echelons of power that an encounter of this nature took place?”
Hari Krishna Srivastava, UP BJP spokesperson :“He was a heinous criminal. He had been changing his mind and looks like after the surrender he changed it once again and attempted to escape. He committed several murders before killing the eight policemen. Was a longstanding hardcore criminal. All those who have been criticising the government and police should take all these things into account and if they have any doubts then when the magisterial probe would happen, they can raise those issues there.”
A senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Kanpur inspector Anurag Mishra will investigate the case.
Praising the UP police for the encounter, Shalabh Mani Trip at hi, a media advisor to the UP chief minister said, “It was a brave encounter. Police had been working hard for six days. Vikas Dubey was a heinous and dreaded criminal.Those who are questioning the police action should not engage in making such statements that would demoralise police .”
Meanwhile, experts have said that criminals like Dubey are likely to have had political patronage across party lines. “This is indisputable that no one can raise and stay unharmed in the world of crime without political patron age. He had been active in crime for over two decades. Such people have political patronage across parties and have influence under every government whichever party rules ,” said Prof SK D wive di, a political analyst and the retired head of the department of political sciences, Lucknow University.