Alert shopkeeper tips off security personnel; two more aides killed in encounters
Vikas Dubey, the main accused in the killing of eight policemen in Kanpur’s Bikru village last week, was arrested in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, on Thursday. Later in the evening, he was handed over to a team of the Uttar Pradesh police. “He was taken to their State by road,” an M.P. police official said. However, Opposition parties as well as the family of Circle Officer Devendra Mishra, who was killed in the Bikru ambush, have questioned the manner of the gangster’s arrest, terming it a staged surrender.
Held in temple
Dubey, who has more than 60 cases against him, was on the run since the attack on a police team on the intervening night of July 2 and 3. He was arrested at the Mahakal temple after an alert shopkeeper tipped off the security on spotting Dubey on the premises. Dubey arrived at the temple around 8 a.m. and asked a shopkeeper where he could get a ticket, said Ujjain Collector Ashish Singh, who also heads the temple com
mittee. “The shopkeeper became suspicious and informed the temple security that he appeared to be the person whose photograph was being circulated,” he said. Dubey bought a VIP ticket for ₹250; by then, temple officials had begun tracking him, said another temple official. “When he exited the temple gate, he was called in for questioning. They asked for his identity card, but he showed one that didn’t match his face, and he started scuffling with the officials,” said Mr. Singh. Eventually, he was handed over to the police, who took him to the Mahakal police station. “There he confessed to his actual identity, which was also confirmed using his mobile number,” said Mr. Singh. In a video doing the rounds on social media, Dubey can be seen being escorted out of the temple by security personnel. In another video, before the police bundle him into a jeep, he is heard shouting, “Mai Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpur wala (I am Vikas Dubey, from Kanpur),” at which a policeman is seen slapping him on the back.
‘Success for M.P.’ Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said Dubey’s associates Bittu and Suresh had also been arrested. “Our police don’t leave anyone. They have arrested Vikas [Dubey] and he is in our custody,” Mr. Mishra told mediapersons, describing it as a huge success for Madhya Pradesh. The police said two more aides of Dubey, including one who was being brought to U.P. on transit remand from Faridabad, had been shot dead earlier in the day in encounters.
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