Kanpur ambush: Bounty on prime accused increased to ₹2.5 lakh

Three days after eight policemen were shot dead at a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, the state police department on Monday (July 06) increased the bounty for the capture of prime accused Vikas Dubey to ₹2.5 lakh.

“The cash reward for the arrest of Vikas Dubey has been increased to ₹2.50 lakh by Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police HC Awasthy,” said Additional Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar.

On June 03, the policemen had gone to Bikru village to arrest Dubey, who has around 60 criminal cases, including murder, kidnapping, extortion and rioting, pending against him. After snatching weapons from the police personnel, the criminals had opened fire at the team from the rooftops.

Later, the bounty was increased from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh after Dubey absconded. The police had formed over 25 teams to capture the history-sheeter. They had also set up a surveillance team that had been scanning more than 500 mobile phones to track him.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh police have suspended three more of their men, suspecting that they tipped off Vikas Dubey whose gang members killed eight policemen in an ambush at the village.

Police had earlier suspended Vinay Tiwari, station officer at Chaubeypur station and were examining the possibility that he informed Dubey that a police team was heading to his Bikru village to arrest him.