Lucknow: At least eight Uttar Pradesh Police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed and seven others injured in an encounter with criminals in Kanpur, officials said Friday. In a separate encounter, police killed two unidentified criminals.
Inspector General of Police, Kanpur, Mohit Agarwal said, “Two unidentified criminals have been killed in a separate encounter and a pistol, which was taken away by criminals from policemen in earlier encounter, was recovered.”
The first encounter took place when a police team was approaching to arrest Vikas Dubey, a history-sheeter facing 60 criminal cases, in Dikru village under the Chaubeypur police station on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, police said.
As the police team was about to reach the hideout of the dreaded criminal, a hail of bullets was showered on them from a building rooftop, leaving Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables dead, the officials said.
Giving details of the incident, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police HC Awasthi said the notorious criminal might have got an inkling of the impending raid. Dubey and his henchmen put up massive roadblocks to prevent the police personnel from proceeding towards their hideout.
As the police team was caught unawares, the criminals fired at them from a building rooftop leading to the deaths, Awasthi said.
On getting information about the incident, Additional DG (Law and Order), IG (Kanpur) and the SSP of Kanpur rushed to the spot, where a forensic team has started investigations. It will be joined by another team from Lucknow. The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police has also been pressed into action, the police chief said.
Awasthi said seven policemen were also injured in the encounter and they have been rushed to a hospital. A combing operation is on and the entire area has been sealed, he said.
Sources said Dubey had allegedly killed Santosh Shukla, an MoS-rank BJP leader inside a police station in 2001.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath paid tributes to the slain policemen and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to their family members.
According to a government spokesperson, the chief minister directed the police chief to take stringent action against the culprits and collect detailed report from the spot immediately.
Besides Mishra who was posted as Circle officer in Bilhaur, other killed killed in the encounter include sub-inspectors Mahesh Chandra Yadav, Anup Kumar Singh and Nebu Lal, constables Jitendra Pal, Sultan Singh, Bablu Kumar and Rahul Kumar, police said.
