Arrest or Surrender by Vikas Dubey? Situation Turns Embarrassing for UP Police as Gangster Found at Ujjain Temple

Lucknow: Wanted for killing of eight policemen in Kanpur’s Bikru village, Vikas Dubey was on Thursday “nabbed” from Mahakal Temple in Ujjain. Sources, however, say that he surrendered and was not arrested as claimed by the MP police.

The situation remains embarrassing both ways for UP Police who kept searching for the criminal for six days and even confirmed that Dubey was spotted at a hotel in Haryana’s Faridabad.

Sources close to the development claim that Dubey paid a visit to Mahakal Temple in Ujjain and then himself asked the security personnel to inform the police about him, following which the officers came and took him away. However MP Police claims that one of the guards at Mahakal Temple identified Vikas Dubey and informed police in turn.

On Thursday, two more of his associates were killed in encounters with the police in UP. While one of the criminals was identified as Ranbir and shot dead in Etawah, the other was Dubey’s associate Prabhat Mishra who was taken in custody by the cops from Faridabad on Wednesday.

According to the police, Ranbir had a bounty of Rs 50,000 on his head and was named in the FIR lodged against Vikas Dubey and others for the killing of eight policemen. He was shot by the police in an encounter when he was reportedly trying to flee and an exchange of fire took place between the criminals and the police party in Etawah. Police said a pistol, a double-barrel gun and several cartridges were recovered from the car in which Ranbir was travelling.

Mishra, meanwhile, was taken in remand from Faridabad on Wednesday when police raided the premises of a hotel after its CCTV footage showed a masked man suspected to be Vikas Dubey. According to the police, they were bringing Mishra to Kanpur on transit remand when their vehicle had a flat tyre. During this time, the accused reportedly tried to flee and was shot dead.

The Bahraich police had launched a massive manhunt in Indo-Nepal border areas and was intensively checking vehicles in the region amid intelligence inputs that Vikas Dubey may escape to the neighbouring country.

Bahraich Superintendent of Police Vipin Mishra had said there were inputs that Vikas Dubey may flee to Nepal. Accordingly, an intensive manhunt has been launched in the Indo-Nepal border area in coordination with Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel and in jungle areas on the border with Forest Department officials, he said.