India: 3 police officers suspended in Kanpur cop killing case

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh: Three Uttar Pradesh police personnel were suspended on Monday on suspicion that they were involved in tipping off Vikas Dubey, the main accused in Kanpur encounter case in which eight policemen were killed in firing allegedly by his henchmen in the early hours of Friday.

Kanpur IG Mohit Agarwal said that 25 teams from 40 police stations have been formed to investigate the details of the case.

"Today, three police officers have been suspended for their suspected role in leaking information to Vikas Dubey. A total of 25 teams of 40 police stations have been formed to carry out searches to arrest people involved and very soon we will arrest all," he said.

Earlier Vinay Tiwari, Station House Officer (SHO) of Chaubeypur Police Station in Kanpur district was suspended for fleeing from the spot during a raid to arrest the gangster Dubey in Bikru village.

Sub-inspectors Kunwarpal and Krishna Kumar Sharma and constable Rajiv were among those who were arrested today.

"As many as 21 people who opened fire on a police team have been identified. Of them two people were killed and one was arrested yesterday," he added.

On Sunday, police arrested Dayashankar Agnihotri, an alleged accomplice of Dubey, who said that the gangster had summoned his men after learning from someone at the police station that policemen were on their way to arrest him.

Meanwhile, the bounty on the arrest of Dubey has been increased to Rs250,000 from Rs100,000.

Currently, a search operation is under way for Dubey. Police have put up his posters at Unnao toll plaza and in Lakhimpur district near the India-Nepal border area.

Yesterday, a huge cache of arms and ammunition were recovered during a search operation from the residence of Vikas Dubey.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath earlier announced Rs10 million each ex-gratia for the families of the policemen killed in the Bikaru village encounter.