'Some relief to soul': Families of slain UP policemen respond to Vikas Dubey's encounter

As the dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter on Friday morning, families of the police personnel who were killed in the ambush on the night of July 2 by the accomplices of Vikas Dubey, have reacted to Dubey's encounter. Tirath Pal, the father of the slain cop Jitendra Pal Singh who was one of the eight cops killed in the Kanpur ambush, has said that the news of Vikas Dubey's death has brought some relief to his soul after suffering the loss of his son because of the notorious gangster.

Whereas Urmila Verma, wife of slain constable Sultan Singh has said she is satisfied with the encounter of Vikas Dubey, but she raised a question as to how will the people backing Vikas Dubey be exposed, now that he is dead. 

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Vikas Dubey encounter

On Friday morning, the police vehicle carrying Vikas Dubey en route Kanpur collided with a divider due to rain and overturned near Dhaunti. After which, the police personnel inside the vehicle got injured. Sources say when the police tried to get Vikas out from the car, he snatched a weapon from them and tried to flee from the spot.

The Police chased him and cornered him while asking him to surrender. Dubey, however, refused and fired on police following which they retaliated in defence and fired three bullets at him. Sources said that the gangster died on the spot. The incident happened around 6.45 am- 7 am, about 10-15 km away from the Bara Toll Plaza. Around 6 policemen were there inside the vehicle including driver and Vikas Dubey.

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Kanpur Ambush killing eight policemen

Vikas Dubey a history-sheeter facing over 60 criminal charges, was responsible for the killing of eight police personnel who were a part of the police team that had gone to raid his hideout in Bikru village but was ambushed by Dubey's accomplices. Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors, and 4 constables were killed.

The notorious gangster was already fed information about the police raid five hours in advance. Dubey had instructed his henchmen to kill all policemen who were part of the raid. As a result, his gang members were already waiting for the police to arrive, leading to the ambush. Daya Shankar Agnihotri, an accomplice of Dubey who was arrested on Sunday, had claimed that Dubey had received an alert. Police surveillance had found that a few cops were in contact with Vikas Dubey and SO Vinay Tiwari is said to be one of them. Four policemen have been suspended since then. The bounty on Vikas Dubey was successively increased, eventually to Rs 5 lakh.

On the night of July 2, the police team went to raid the residence of Vikas Dubey, however, a JCB machine was placed on the road to block the police vehicle which points out that the criminal and his men already knew of the police' action. When the policemen got down from the vehicle after the roadblock due to JCB machine, Vikas Dubey's henchmen who had already taken a position on the rooftop started firing on the policemen ultimately killing eight of them and injuring seven.