Gangster Vikas Dubey meets bloody end, shot in encounter near home turf

KANPUR: Seven days after the

Bikru village bloodbath

in which eight policemen were ambushed and killed by

Vikas Dubey

and his henchmen, the 48-year-old gangster whose guile and brutality captured the imagination of the nation, was shot dead in an encounter with UP police on a highway in Kanpur, barely 22 km from his home turf, where he held kangaroo courts to deliver instant justice.

Dubey was handed over to UP’s Special Task Force after his dramatic arrest from Mahakaal temple in Ujjain,

Madhya Pradesh

, on Thursday and was being escorted back to Kanpur by an 18-member UP Police team. After a four-hour journey through the night in a police convoy comprising three escort vehicles, the unarmed gangster was gunned down when he allegedly snatched a gun from an STF commando and opened fire after their Mahindra TUV overturned while swerving past a buffalo herd amid pounding rain, police said.

Dubey, who tried to flee after the mishap, took three bullets in his chest and one in the arm and collapsed in a pool of blood near Sachendi area, 10km from the district headquarters, while four cops suffered injuries, said ADG, law and order, Prashant Kumar.

During the gangster’s funeral at Bhairavghat on banks of Ganga in Kanpur, his wife Richa told reporters, “I will pick the gun to give justice to my beloved husband.”

While the police encounter has come under cloud and triggered a flood of unanswered questions, what stirred a bigger controversy was the police action to bar the media entourage following the police convoy, barely 600m from the shootout site on Panki Road. Just 15 minutes later, gunshots were heard and the don lay dead.

Speaking to reporters, ADG Kumar said, “In the disarray after the police SUV overturned, Vikas wriggled out and pounced upon a STF personnel and snatched a gun and opened fire, leaving four police personnel injured. In retaliatory action, Vikas was shot at and critically injured. He was rushed to

Lala Lajpat Rai

hospital, Kanpur, where doctors declared him brought dead.”

SSP, Kanpur, Dinesh Kumar Prabhu, said, the SUV carrying Vikas was speeding to stay ahead of other vehicles behind the convoy, when it suddenly overturned. Sources said, media persons were following the police convoy since it left Ujjain at 3.15am on Friday.

Two STF commandos were among the four injured policemen and they have been admitted to LLR hospital, Kanpur. Senior police officials, including

ADG Kanpur

zone JN Singh, IG Kanpur range Mohit Agarwal and SSP Dinesh Kumar Prabhu visited the hospital to take stock of the situation. Dr RB Kamal, who treated the injured policemen said, “The condition of three cops is stable. Bullets had grazed past their chest.”

The gangster, who was catapulted into India’s most-wanted league, had been on the run since July 2 night when a police party, which went to arrest him from his house in Bikru village in the Chaubeypur area of Kanpur, was ambushed. Since then, three people have been arrested, six accused, including Vikas Dubey were killed, seven people have been sent to jail and 12 wanted criminals are still on the run.”