Kanpur Ganglord Vikas Dubey and his men gun down 8 policemen

Uttar Pradesh lived up to its reputation for lawlessness when eight policemen were gunned down in the early hours of Friday. The encounter took place barely a week after the Prime Minister showered lavish praise on the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The policemen who had gone to Bikaru village of Kanpur to arrest the Ganglord Vikas Dubey, were ambushed before they could reach his fortress-like house.

Among the policemen killed were Circle officer (CO) Bilaur Devendra Mishra, SO Shivrajpur Mahesh Yadav, a sub inspector and five constables.

Dubey, in his forties, had killed a BJP MLA in the year 2000 but was acquitted by the sessions court. But he was accused in over 60 cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lamented the state of lawlessness in UP, where even policemen are not safe, she said.

Dubey’s men apparently knew about the policemen arriving in the village to arrest him following an FIR for attempt to murder lodged by a fellow villager. JCBs were placed on the road to obstruct police vehicles and policemen got down, they were greeted by a hail of bullets.

Dubey and most of his men escaped following the encounter. Unconfirmed reports say some of the arms of the policemen are also missing.

“Dubey and his men fired indiscriminately from roof tops,” Awanish Awasthi, Home Secretary, said in Lucknow. Awasthi informed that a resident of Lucknow had lodged a complaint against Dubey.

“The police party comprising 13 cops had gone to arrest him when they were ambushed. Eight of them including four officers died while five have been injured. They have been admitted in hospital,” Awasthi said.

The encounter has come as a major blow to the BJP Government, which had claimed to have waged a war on criminals in the state. The chief minister Yogi Adityanath and even Union Home Minister Amit Shah would preen at the ‘model state of Uttar Pradesh’ where criminals had allegedly gone into hiding.

A sheepish and sombre CM on Friday ordered an FIR to see how Dubey had escaped the law and how he had amassed wealth and was maintaining a private militia.

It is well known that gang lords call the shots in large swathes of the politically sensitive state. According to National Crime record Bureau UP is one of the most lawless states of India where incidents of crime including that against women and loot are the highest.