Highlights
- The murder of eight policemen on duty has been a huge embarrassment for Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who has cultivated an image of being tough on law and order.
- The grisly killings of the policemen were overshadowed by the Chinese aggression in Galwan and the murders did not grab as much media attention.
Amar Dubey, close aide of gangster Vikas Dubey, who killed an unprecedented number of eight policemen in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh in a raid gone wrong to arrest him, was shot in an “encounter” today by the Uttar Pradesh police. Amar Dubey was shot dead in Hamirpur.
Vikas Dubey is still at large after the unprecedented killing, which is a pointer to the toxic mix of the mafia, police and casteist gangs, which are the only growth industry in today’s Uttar Pradesh.
A senior police official speaking to Gulf News says: “The fear of the law is totally gone as criminals count politicians and police among their patrons.”
Dubey, a dreaded gangster wanted for murder and extortion, had links with every political party, and even though a huge manhunt has been launched, he is still free six days after the barbaric killings.
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Last Friday, 50 policemen from three police stations had gone to Bikru village near Kanpur 150 kilometres from the state capital Lucknow in search of the politically connected gangster. Dubey is charged in 60 criminal cases, including murder, extortion, rioting and kidnapping.
Uttar Pradesh police officials are now trading charges that Dubey had informers inside the police who tipped him off about the raid to arrest him and is also providing him with vital information even now.
According to the latest National Crimes Report Bureau report available with Gulf News, Uttar Pradesh has the dubious distinction of topping India in crimes against women (59,445 cases). Uttar Pradesh also recorded the highest number of gang-rapes and second highest number of rapes. Uttar Pradesh ranked highest in reported murders (4,323 cases) in 2017, the last year that numbers were reported.
The nexus
Dubey was apparently spotted in a hotel near Delhi in Faridabad as 25 teams of Uttar Pradesh police look for him. A nationwide alert has also been sounded with Delhi Police hunting for him.
Sources say Dubey wants to surrender to a force other than the Uttar Pradesh police as he fears that he will be killed by angry UP cops. Sources say it is vital to arrest Dubey as he can reveal the actual nexus between senior officials and politicians of Uttar Pradesh who had patronised him for years leading to his reign of terror.
The murder of eight policemen on duty has been a huge embarrassment for Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who has cultivated an image of being tough on law and order. The grisly killings of the policemen were overshadowed by the Chinese aggression in Galwan and the murders did not grab as much media attention.
Political parties are busy trading charges on Dubey, but what the murders reveal is that the rot runs deep. Photographs of Dubey and his aides with top officials of Uttar Pradesh are doing the rounds on social media.
Dubey, who is said to be in fifties, has cultivated an image of being a dreaded gangster based on Bollywood potboilers. He would make personal extortion calls to kidnap victims and wore flashy clothes to impress his aides.
Uttar Pradesh is a growth industry for caste-based gangs who have extensive links with political parties running their private militias. Dubey is just one of the most conspicuous examples.
