Jaikant Bajpai, who allegedly handled slain history-sheeter Vikas Dubey’s finances, was arrested on charges of providing financial and logistical help to the gangster in executing the ambush of policemen in Bikru village and escaping from there, police said on Monday.
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Along with Bajpai, police also arrested his associate, Prashant Shukla, for allegedly helping Dubey in the incident as part of a ‘conspiracy’. After the killing of eight policemen in Bikru on July 2-3, Bajpai has been under the scanner of the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF). However, on Sunday, reports circulated that he had been released by the STF and even escorted home by the local police. Soon after, the Kanpur police announced his arrest, saying they had evidence of his involvement.
On July 1, Dubey made a phone call to Bajpai who, on the next day, reached Bikru with Shukla and provided Dubey with ₹2 lakh in cash and a revolver with 25 cartridges, said inspector in charge of the Nazirabad police station.
Bajpai, better known as ‘Jai Bajpais’, is also accused of providing three luxury cars to Dubey and his men to escape after the shootout. However, on July 4, the police found the cars abandoned in Kakadeo area of Kanpur.
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Bajpai and Shukla were booked on several charges, including murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and Section 29 and 30 of the Arms Act. Bajpai’s sudden financial rise in the last few years-- from a small printing press to a flashy lifestyle, land estate and SUVs, along with his photographs with politicians, police officers and bureaucrats that surfaced after July 3-- has added a mystique to his character in this entire episode.
Denies role
Talking to reporters while being taken away by the police, he denied any role in the Bikru incident. “I have nothing to do with this incident”, he stated. He was being falsely implicated in the case, he claimed.
Bajpai said he had a financial transaction of only ₹11.80 lakh with Dubey--Bajpai had borrowed from Dubey.
A police officer said Bajpai was presented before a court and sent to jail.
Dubey post-mortem report
Meanwhile, the post-mortem report of Dubey said he died of haemorrhage and shock due to ante-mortem firearm injuries.
There were a total of 10 injury marks on his body, including three bullet entry wounds and three bullet exit wounds, including two on his left chest, and contusion on the right side of his face and head. He also had injury marks on his elbow, ribs and hip.
On July 10, he was brought dead at the Lala Lajpat Raj Hospital in Kanpur at 7:50 a.m., the report said. In a counter-affidavit filed by the State government in the Supreme Court recently it said the STF team fired six bullets at Dubey but only three hit him as he allegedly tried to flee from police custody while being transported from Ujjain to Kanpur. Before getting killed, Dubey fired nine shots at the STF team with a pistol he snatched from one of the police officers, the government claimed.
