Vikas Dubey escaped last Friday after killing eight police officers in an ambush he had organized to avoid being arrested.
New Delhi:
Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey was arrested this morning after a five-day hunt in which he traveled through three states to find himself in a temple in Madhya Pradesh. Moments after leaving the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain, the notorious criminal was confronted. “Principal Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpur wala (I’m Vikas Dubey from Kanpur),” he burst out, detained by several police officers and slapped by one of them. Vikas Dubey, charged in 60 cases, including murders, escaped last Friday after killing eight police officers in an ambush he had organized to avoid being arrested. In the end, he was not caught at UP, where there was an alert for him, but more than 600 km away in a city in Madhya Pradesh.
Here are the top 10 developments in this story:
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Vikas Dubey, who is in his fifties, was recognized when he bought prasad and entered the temple of Mahakal. As the security guards confronted him, he shot them. Then he was fired.
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Dubey, last seen at a hotel in Faridabad, Haryana, is said to have driven from Kanpur to Faridabad, via Kota to Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh – approximately 1,500 km – without being checked.
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Madhya Pradesh Interior Minister Narottam Mishra said Dubey entered the state with two aides; he had a fake ID that declared his last name “Paul”.
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Was it a surrender or an arrest? UP chief police officer Mohit Agarwal said: “We caught many of his associates and a few were killed. He was therefore trying to save his life and flee.”
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The arrest was reported hours after two of Dubey’s accomplices were shot dead by Uttar Pradesh police in separate meetings. One of them was arrested on Wednesday at the Faridabad hotel where Dubey was seen. On his way to the UP, he allegedly snatched a pistol from a police officer trying to repair a flat tire and tried to flee.
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Last Friday, a large team of police officers who went to the village of Dubey in Bikru to arrest him in an attempted murder case were surprised by indiscriminate shots from the roofs. Eight police officers were killed. Dubey escaped after the massacre.
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The UP administration demolished Dubey’s house and launched a massive hunt for him. In the past week, five of Dubey’s accomplices have been killed.
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Two policemen are among the dozen arrested. The police, including the inspector in charge of the police station near the village of Dubey, reportedly alerted the gangster to the police team who was about to arrest him. More than 60 police officers from this station were abducted and posted on the police lines.
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Questions have been raised over Vikas Dubey’s long term across three states without being caught. Opposition leaders wondered if the gangster had surrendered or been arrested.
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Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said he had been in contact with his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath. “Those who feel that after going to the temple of Mahakal their sins will be erased, do not know the Mahakal. Our government will spare no criminals,” tweeted Mr. Chouhan.
