New Delhi: The circumstances – as related by the Uttar Pradesh Police – under which criminal Vikas Dubey was gunned down in an encounter, early on July 10 while in the police’s custody, are being viewed with suspicion widely. Several media persons following the police convoy ferrying Dubey from Madhya Pradesh to Kanpur city of UP after his surrender at a public place, have also questioned the sudden police action to bar their movement. Minutes later, the encounter had taken place. Dubey was the prime accused in a case where eight policemen were killed in an encounter in the Bikru village of Kanpur district on July 3. So far, UP Police has carried out five such encounters, causing the death of Dubey’s closest aides, aside from arresting several persons associated with the gang. Vikas Dubey was said to have close connections with several politicians of the state. A quick look at how the other top members of the Dubey gang were killed in police encounters between July 3 and July 9 strongly suggests that each person eventually killed may have helped police in extracting information on the whereabouts of yet others, leading to subsequent encounters. Atul Dubey and Prem Prakash PandeyThe two were the first to be killed by police following the first fatal Kanpur encounter. Both were shot dead in the Shivli forest near Bikru just hours after the eight policemen were gunned down on July 3. The encounter reportedly took place some six kms from the site where the eight policemen were killed by the Dubey gang.While Atul is said to be a close relative of Vikas Dubey, Prem Prakash is his maternal uncle. Also read: A Chronicle of the Crime Fiction That is Adityanath’s Encounter RajNot much is known about the exact turn of events leading to their killing.Amar DubeyThis top aide of Vikas Dubey was gunned down on July 8. Like Vikas, he too was killed in an early morning encounter with the UP Police in Hamripur district of Himachal Pradesh. Amar, also Vikas’s nephew and his bodyguard, was a co-accused in the Bikru incident and a sum of Rs 50,000 was announced for any information about him.According to UP additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar, Amar was shot dead by the state’s special task force in coordination with the local police of Hamirpur at Maudaha village. Hamirpur superintendent of police Shlok Kumar told PTI, “Acting on a tip off, a team of STF and local police surrounded Amar and he was injured in the firing and died during treatment in the hospital.”Police said two policemen were injured in the encounter.Bahua aka Praveen DubeyPraveen Dubey, yet another close aide of Vikas Dubey, too was killed in an early morning encounter a day later, on July 9. Praveen, who also had a Rs.50,000 bounty on him, was shot dead by UP Police in Etawah.The circumstances leading to his killing suggest an uncanny coincidence. Etawah senior superintendent of police Akash Tomar told NDTV, “Around 3 am, a Swift Dzire was looted by four armed men on a Scorpio. They were stopped about an hour later by cops when they tried to escape. The police chased them and an unidentified man suffered multiple injuries in crossfire. He was declared brought dead at the hospital.”Also read: Vikas Dubey Is the Symptom of a Political System That Provides Patronage to CriminalsThe man was later identified as the wanted criminal Praveen Dubey. His accomplices fled.Kartik aka Prabhat MishraIn yet another early morning encounter on July 9 itself, Prabhat Mishra, a criminal from the gang, was killed by UP Police. The details of the circumstances under which he was gunned down are, once again, similar to the encounter killing of Vikas Dubey on July 10 morning.Mishra, a close aide of the gangster, was among three people arrested from Faridabad (Haryana) on July 7. After presenting a remand order, he was handed over to a UP Police team to be brought to the state. Prabhat Mishra, one of the aides of Vikas Dubey. Photo: TwitterHowever, Mishra was killed in an encounter while on transit to Kanpur – like Vikas Dubey was, from Madhya Pradesh. While the vehicle carrying Vikas Dubey was said to have met with an accident following which he tried to flee after snatching a pistol from a policeman, in Mishra’s case, the police van ferrying him allegedly ‘broke down,’ following which, he too tried to flee and reportedly snatched a pistol from a policeman.ADGP Kumar reportedly said that after the vehicle broke down, Mishra “took advantage of the situation, snatched pistol from policeman, fired at our men and tried to escape.”Also read: How a Corrupt Politician-Police Nexus in Kanpur Protected Vikas Dubey for Years“Our personnel retaliated, during which Prabhat (Mishra) got killed. Several policemen (were) injured in (the) incident”. In the Vikas Dubey encounter too, Police said three of the personnel were injured while bullets brushed by two of them. R.B. Kamal, the principal of the LLR Hospital, Kanpur, where the injured policemen were admitted, told reporters that the condition of all of them is stable.Dr. Kamal said Vikas had three bullet injuries on the chest and one on his arm.
