Kanpur: Vikas Dubey, whose men shot dead eight police personnel on Friday, dabbled in real-estate, won a district-level election and may have got his picture taken with a politician who is now a minister, available information suggests.
Hours after the ambush of a police team at Bikru village near here, a photo on social media showed him at an event next to an Uttar Pradesh minister, who has switched parties to join the ruling BJP. The Congress claimed this showed political patronage.
Another picture showed a poster appealing for votes for his wife Richa Dubey in a Zila Panchayat election, which she won from Ghimau under which the Bikru village falls. The poster carried pictures of two leaders now in opposition, implying that she had their support.
In 2000, Dubey himself won the Shivrajpur seat in a Zila Panchayat poll he fought from prison, where he was lodged after a murder charge, according to officials.
Uttar Pradesh policemen came under fire the early hours of Friday when they had gone too Bikru village to arrest Dubey in a new case of attempted murder.
Officials said the road had been blocked by heavy earthmoving equipment. When policemen stepped out of their vehicles, they faced a hail of bullets. In an encounter later, police killed two of Dubey’s alleged associates.
Police claimed that Dubey has been involved in about 60 cases. But details obtained from officials indicate that he has been not been convicted in cases like murder. He was the prime accused in the murder of BJP leader Santosh Shukla inside the Shivli police station here in 2001, according to an official.
Dubey had instilled so much fear in everyone that even after being accused of murdering a BJP leader having the status of minister of state, not even a single police officer gave a statement against him, alleged the official who did not want to be named.
“No evidence was put before the court and he was acquitted for lack of evidence, the official said. He claimed that Dubey used to plot and execute crimes, including murder, from inside the jail.
Dubey has also been an accused in the murder in 2000 of Sidheshwar Pandey, a manager at Tarachand Inter College in Kanpur.
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He was accused of plotting the murder of one Ram Babu Yadav from the prison in the same year. His name came up in the murder of Dinesh Dubey, a businessman, in 2004. He allegedly committed another murder in 2013.
He was accused of ordering the murder of his cousin Anurag in 2018, while he was himself in jail. The victim’s wife had filed an FIR against four people, including him, according to his history sheet shared by officials.
A villager said Dubey and his brother Deepu Dubey deal in real estate. Another younger brother Avinash was killed some time back, the local resident claimed.
The alleged gangster lives with his father, Ram Kumar Dubey, who is now being questioned by police. Their house was described by a villager as “impenetrable castle” with CCTV cameras to prevent people from entering without his consent.
(PTI)