Kanpur shootout | Two U.P. policemen held for tipping off Vikas Dubey on raid

Vikas Dubey’s aide killed, six others arrested, but accused Shyamu’s family questions encounter

July 08, 2020 03:27 pm | Updated July 31, 2020 02:26 pm IST - LUCKNOW:

File photo of Amar Dubey, an aide of gangster Vikas Dubey. File

File photo of Amar Dubey, an aide of gangster Vikas Dubey. File

The suspended Station House Officer (SHO) of Chaubeypur, Vinay Tiwari, and beat in-charge K. K. Sharma were arrested on Wednesday on charges of allegedly providing a tip-off to wanted criminal Vikas Dubey about the police raid at his house on the intervening night of July 2-3 when eight policemen were shot dead in an ambush.

Also read: Vikas Dubey tipped off by local police station, says aide

The two cops provided information to Dubey about the police raid, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)-Kanpur Dinesh Kumar.

“After collection of evidence, it has come to light that Vikas Dubey had been alerted and [he] set up an ambush and killed the policemen after he had been provided information about the police raid beforehand,” said the SSP.

They were being sent to judicial custody, he added.

Meanwhile, the police shot dead Amar Dubey, an aide of Vikas Dubey , who was often seen carrying a gun with him, in an alleged encounter in rural Maudaha in Hamirpur. An illegal semi-automatic .32 bore pistol was also recovered from Amar Dubey, said Additional Director General-Law and Order Prashant Kumar. A constable was shot and injured in the encounter, in which Amar allegedly fired at the cops despite being asked to surrender, U.P. Police said in a statement.

Also read:  Gangster of Kanpur: Editorial on history-sheeter Vikas Dubey

Mr. Kumar also said that an absconding accused Prabhat, and two others, Ankur Mishra and Shrawan Mishra, who allegedly provided him shelter, were arrested from a house in Faridabad in Haryana. Two 9 mm pistols looted from the police on the night of July 2-3, along with two other pistols and 44 live cartridges, were recovered from them, said Mr. Kumar.

In Kanpur, police said it arrested three other accused — Shyamu Bajpai, Jahan Yadav and Sanjeev Dubey. Shyamu was injured in an alleged encounter on Wednesday. However, his family claimed that he had already been picked up by police hours after the killing of eight policemen on the morning of July 3.

Shyamu was listed as one of the 18 accused persons absconding from the site after the incident and a bounty of ₹50,000 was placed on his head. He was shot in his left leg during the alleged encounter, said police.

Also read: Kanpur encounter: 3 more including close relative of Vikas Dubey held

Picked-up on July 3

However, on Monday, his mother Ram Lakshmi Bajpai while talking to The Hindu claimed that on the morning of July 3, hours after the killing of eight policemen in an ambush, policemen came to her house, located behind the now demolished mansion-like house of Vikas.

Mother of Shyamu Bajpai

Mother of Shyamu Bajpai

 

She claimed her son was sleeping in his room when he was picked up by police between 5.45 a.m. and 6 a.m. “I asked the police many times but they didn’t inform me about his [Shyamu’s] whereabouts,” she alleged.

“He was sleeping and was wearing a towel and a vest [when they took him]. His wife, who is ill [and pregnant], was with him,” said Ms. Ram Lakshmi. Shyamu, around 33, worked as a labourer in a nearby detergent factory, which employed several youth in the village, his family said.

Also read:  Uttar Pradesh’s encounters: 1,000 & counting

“Just show us where is he, if he is [alive] at all,” his sister Preeti said, holding a passport size photo of Shyamu on Monday morning.

Talking to the media on Wednesday while being taken to a hospital, an injured Shyamu, wearing a white vest and pyjamas, claimed he was at home on the night of the incident. He said he had returned home at 9 p.m. after work and had nothing to do with the encounter or Vikas.

When asked by reporters while being taken away in a police vehicle as to where he was caught by the police, Shyamu claimed that he was brought from the police station. “ Thane mein thay , sir (I was in the police station),” he told reporters.

 

‘Weapons recovered’

In a statement, Kanpur Police said a 315 bore country-made pistol and two live cartridges were recovered from Shyamu. Police said Shyamu and the two others were arrested on July 7 during vehicle checking, and on the morning of July 8, they took him to a forest area 4 km near Shivli Road to recover the weapon used in the earlier encounter.

Shyamu dug out a pistol hidden in a pit on the side of the road and fired at the police team with the intent to kill, following which the police shot at him in self-defence, said Kanpur Police.

Meanwhile, two weapons, an AK-47 and an Insas rifle, looted from the police team on the night of the encounter, are yet to be recovered. All police staff in the Chaubeypur Police Station have been replaced.

Those responsible for the killing of the eight policemen would “repent” their actions, said Mr. Kumar, even as the State Police is yet to catch Vikas Dubey.

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