8 cops in UP gunned down in failed raid

2 criminals killed in encounter

Kanpur, July 3: Eight police personnel, including a DSP, were gunned down in a village near the city by the henchmen of a criminal who lost two of them in a firefight later, officials said on Friday.

Seven others, including a civilian, were injured in the attack from a rooftop on a police team after it entered Bikru village past Thursday midnight to arrest Vikas Dubey, a history-sheeter who has faced about 60 criminal cases. The attackers fled, snatching weapons from the dead and the wounded policemen.

The police then sealed the entire area and began a combing operation, which led to another encounter with Dubey’s men in Nivada village. There, police killed Prem Prakash and Atul Dubey, and recovered a snatched pistol.

They were looking for the other members of the gang and the rest of the weapons. The snatched weapons included an AK-47 rifle, an INSAS rifle, a Glock pistol and two .9mm pistols, a police spokesman said.

Inspector General (Special Task Force) Amitabh Yash claimed that the weapon used in the initial attack was a rifle seized from Dubey by the STF when they arrested him in Lucknow’s Krishna Nagar in 2017.

The automatic rifle was released into the custody of someone else by the court. Police said they will investigate further into this.

Hours after the attack, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath came under flak from the Opposition — including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi — over the law and order situation in the state.

The failed police raid at Bikru followed the registration of another case against Vikas Dubey, who was accused in 2001 of killing a senior BJP leader in 2001.

Uttar Pradesh DGP H.C. Awasthi said the criminals might have got an inkling of the raid.