Urgent need to break nexus between politicians, police and criminals in Uttar Pradesh

Most wanted gangster Vikas Dubey may have been arrested from the Mahakali temple at Ujjain, but the manner in which he killed eight police officials in Bikru village in Kanpur exposed the nexus between politicians, police and criminals.

The complicity of police was exposed when DIG STF Anant Dev was recently transferred as he failed to take action as SSP Kanpur on the letter written by slain police officer CO Bilhaur regarding the involvement of CO Choubeypur Vinay Tewari with Vikas Dubey. The letter had warned about the tragedy in advance.

Now a probe has also been ordered about the role of Anant Dev as to why he failed to take action or whether he had any connection with Vikas Dubey.

Two police officials of Choubeypur thana, including Vinay Tewari and beat incharge KK Sharma, have been arrested for avoiding the police party which went to Bikru village, where eight policemen were killed. It is alleged that these two had links with Vikas Dubey.

The most disturbing aspect of the complicity of police with criminals is that the entire police staff of Choubeypur thana has been sent to lines for having links with Vikas Dubey, who seemed to have been controlling the functioning of thana as per his will.

The growth of Vikas Dubey from a petty criminal to a most influential person of his caste in his area who could influence voters and get away with crimes he committed in the last two years is also a sad commentary on the role of police based on caste.

Vikas Dubey, who had 60 cases including murder and attempt to murder against him, was not even listed as a wanted criminal and was moving freely. Enjoying patronage of politicians and police, he could be such a daredevil that he entered a thana and killed a minister rank politician 19 years back.

During his interrogation by UP STF in 2017, Vikas Dubey admitted to links with two BJP MLAs, Abhijeet Sanga and Bhagwati Sagar, which was evident from the video, but no action was ever taken by the BJP high command against these two MLAs.

After the arrest of Vikas Dubey, Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav has demanded that call details of Vikas Dubey be made public, which according to him, would establish his political links.

There are reports of Vikas Dubey enjoying even bigger clout during the BSP regime and having influence in several districts.

There is no doubt that Vikas Dubey had emerged as a force commanding respect among the Brahmin community; that is why all senior politicians of different political parties wanted to keep him in good humour for the sake of Brahmin votes.

Although a blame game is on, with BJP, Samajwadi Party and BSP blaming each other for providing patronage to criminals, there is no introspection as how to clean their parties from criminal elements.

Former DGP UP Prakash Singh had initiated a lot for police reforms but the time has come to implement them and identify and weed out those policemen involved in giving protection to criminals.

The big question is whether there would be any serious thinking among the political parties and the administration to break the nexus between politicians criminals and police.