UP police inquire their own officers after 8 gunned down in Kanpur

The Uttar Pradesh police are currently enquiring their local police officers to find out who leaked information about their planned arrest, after eight policemen were killed by Vikas Dubey and his gang on Friday (July 3).

A senior police official said on Sunday (July 5) that the main aide of gangster Vikas Dubey, Dayashankar Agnihotri, who was involved in the attack, was arrested in a pre-dawn encounter in Kanpur.

In the early hours of Sunday, the police got a tip-off and tried to stop Agnihotri on the Kalyanpur-Shivli road when he opened fire on them. While no police personnel was hurt, Agnihotri got bullet injuries on his leg in retaliatory firing.

“Dayashankar Agnihotri alias Kallu, the main aide of Dubey, has been arrested during an encounter. Agnihotri always used to accompany Dubey and was staying at Dubey’s house (which was demolished on Saturday),” Inspector General, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal said.

The senior official also said the cash reward announced by the police on Dubey’s arrest has been increased to ₹1 lakh. “Agnihotri was carrying a cash reward of ₹25,000. He was named accused in the firing incident on the policemen. In the encounter, he got bullet injuries on his leg, Agarwal said.

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Additional Director General of Police, Kanpur, J N Singh said the encounter took place at around 4.30 am in Kalyanpur area of Kanpur. Agnihotri was admitted to the Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital and police recovered a country-made pistol and two cartridges from his possession, said Superintendent of Police (west) Anil Kumar.

Agnihotri told reporters that Dubey had got a call from someone in the police department informing him about his imminent arrest, and after that, he called his men for a face-to-face confrontation with the police.

Furthermore, data recovered from Dubey’s mobile phone showed the names of 20 police officers in it. It was found that at least two cops, including one from the Chaubeypur Police Station in Bikru village, where the encounter took place, were in constant touch with Dubey.

“He (Vikas Dubey) received a phone call from the police station before police came to arrest him. Following this, he called around 25-30 people (and they) fired bullets on police,” Agnihotri told the police, according to NDTV.

“I was locked inside the house at the time of encounter, therefore, saw nothing,” NDTV quoted Agnihotri as saying.

Allegations had earlier surfaced against Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer (SO) of Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur district in whose jurisdiction the incident took place, for alerting Dubey that a police team was moving towards his house to arrest him, following which the gangster and his men attacked the police personnel resulting in the slaying of eight of them.

Related news: Over 25 UP Police teams formed to nab Vikas Dubey after death of 8 cops

The SO was suspended on Saturday.

When asked about the action being taken against suspended SO Tiwari, Agarwal said, “He (Vinay Tiwari) has been sent to Police Lines. He has not been detained. Investigations are going on. If any evidence is found which suggests that Tiwari was part of the conspiracy, then he will be detained.”

On the demolition of Dubey’s house by police on Saturday, the IG said, “Police had information that Dubey had hidden a lot of arms and ammunition in a bunker. There was also information about him hiding arms and ammunition in the walls of the house.

“The walls were broken in order to search for the weapons. When the walls were broken, the roof also collapsed. Large amount of ammunition was recovered in the digging. Shortly after midnight on Friday, eight policemen had walked into a trap set by Dubey and fell to a hail of bullets fired from rooftops.

“They were given a tearful farewell on Saturday as police began demolishing the criminals’ lavish hideout in Bikru village, the scene of the bloody crime,” he explained.

Seven others, including a civilian, were injured in the attack that took place in the dead of night on Thursday. Later, police sealed the entire area and began a combing operation, which led to another encounter with Dubey’s men in Nivada village in which two of them were killed.

The eight men killed in the line of duty, mostly in their 20s and 30s, included Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra (54).

The others are Mahesh Kumar Yadav (42), Sub-Inspector Anoop Kumar Singh (32), Sub-Inspector Nebu Lal (48) and Constables Jitendra Pal (26), Sultan Singh (34), Bablu Kumar (23) and Rahul Kumar (24).

Their bodies were taken back to their homes where senior police officers attended their last rites.

(With inputs from agencies)