The Uttar Pradesh Police have intensified efforts to nab gangster Vikas Dubey, who is on the run since the killing of eight policemen in Bikru village near Kanpur.
Dubey’s men attacked the team of police officials last Thursday as they came to the village to arrest the gangster in connection with a complaint against him.
The police have gunned down two more close aides of Dubey – Prabhat Mishra and Praveen Dubey.
Dubey was killed in Etawah when he was trying to escape after stealing a car.
Mishra, meanwhile, was being brought to Kanpur after his arrest in Haryana’s Faridabad. He was gunned down when he tried to flee from the police custody.
“The police personnel were changing the tyre of escort vehicles as it got punctured near Panki on way to Kanpur. Mishra tried to escape and was shot down,” said ADG (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar.
Police recovered two 9 mm pistols looted from policemen with 44 live rounds from Mishra’s possession.
They were among the 15 men who attacked the team of policemen on the intervening night of July 2 and 3. Both Dubey and Mishra carried a cash reward of Rs 50,000 each.
With this, five criminals involved in the Kanpur shootout have now been killed. On Wednesday morning, a team of UP Police engaged Dubey’s accomplice, Amar Dubey, in a gunfight in Hamirpur. Amar succumbed to injuries hours later.
On Tuesday, Dubey was spotted at a hotel in Faridabad, the first time his whereabouts was known in what has been a game of cat and mouse since his escape from the scene of the gunfight. Dubey has till now stayed a step ahead of the cops, who have discovered his hideouts and his getaway vehicles but only after he left them.
On Wednesday, the police arrested two sub-inspectors posted in Kanpur and are believed to have alerted Dubey. An official involved in the manhunt in NCR, while asking not to be named, said it is likely that the suspect is still being fed information from inside the police since he seems to be leaving his hideouts shortly before raids are carries out.
