LUCKNOW/KANPUR, July 14: An aide of gangster Vikas Dubey has been arrested and two rifles of the Uttar Pradesh police looted during the Kanpur ambush earlier this month have been recovered, police said on Tuesday.
With this, all weapons looted during the ambush have been recovered, they said.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said Dubey’s aide Shashikant alias Sonu Pandey was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on him.
“Shashikant was an accused in the killing of eight policemen (in the Kanpur ambush). He was arrested from Chaubeypur around 2.50 am,” the police officer told reporters in Kanpur.
“During interrogation, he admitted to his involvement in the encounter at Kanpur’s Bikru. It was revealed that the looted AK-47 rifle of the police was hidden at Dubey’s house while the INSAS rifle was at Shashikant’s house,” the ADG said.
Based on the information, an AK-47 rifle, its 17 cartridges, an INSAS rifle and its 20 cartridges have been recovered. These weapons were looted from the police during the ambush and hidden in the houses of Vikas Dubey and Shashikant on the suggestion of the former, Kumar said.
“With the recovery of these lost weapons, the Uttar Pradesh Police has recovered all the lost weapons during the ambush,” the ADG told PTI.
He said of the 21 named accused in the Kanpur ambush, six have been killed and four arrested so far, while a hunt is on for 11 named accused.
Those still on the run are Gopal Saini and Heeru Dubey, carrying a cash reward of Rs one lakh each, and Chhottu Shukla, Shiv Tewari, Ram Singh, Ramu Bajpai, Shivam Dubey, Bal Govind, Bauwan Shukla, Vishnu Pal Yadav and Monu carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 each, according to a police statement. Multiple teams of the Kanpur district police and UP Special Task Force (STF) are carrying out searches to arrest these 11 wanted criminals, Kumar said. Dubey was shot dead on July 10 by police, who claim that he was trying to flee after the car carrying him from Ujjain overturned on an isolated stretch of the highway on the outskirts of the city.
The SUV met with the accident at Bhaunti in Kanpur district, toppling on the road which was slippery after the rains, police claimed.
According to a statement from the Special Task Force, the driver had tried to avoid cattle on the road. The car was part of a small convoy of police vehicles.
Dubey was the sixth man to die in a police encounter after the ambush he allegedly masterminded in Kanpur’s Bikru village past midnight on July 2, killing eight policemen who had come to arrest him.
On July 3, two of Dubey’s alleged accomplices Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey were killed by the police in an encounter in Kanpur, while on July 8 the police killed Amar Dubey, who carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on him, in Maudaha village of Hamirpur district.
On July 9, two more alleged aides — Kartikeya alias Prabhat and Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey — were killed in separate encounters in Kanpur and Etawah districts. (PTI)
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