Kanpur, July 10 (IANS) Videos of events that led to the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey are contradicting the claims made by the Special Task Force (STF) that he was shot dead on Friday morning when he tried to escape.
Vikas Dubey was wanted for the massacre of eight policemen in Bikru village on July 3 and was being brought o Kanpur from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh from where he was taken into custody on Thursday.
The UP Police said that the car in which Vikas Dubey was travelling overturned and he and other policemen were injured. The criminal snatched a gun from an injured cop and tried to escape, the police said. He was surrounded and asked to surrender but he opened fire, forcing retaliatory shooting in which he was killed.
A video of the three cars crossing a toll booth at around 4 a.m. shows that Vikas Dubey was in a different car — not the one that is seen tipped on its side after the accident on the highway 30 km from Kanpur.
There is no comment yet from the police on the mysterious car switch.
Asked why would Vikas try to run away when he himself turned up at Ujjain and got himself arrested Vikram Singh said, “It depends what came to his mind when the vehicle overturned, the criminal goes by instincts.”
However, ex-Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said that every case should be looked into with a wider perspective and there could not be a set rule to see all cases within the same prism.
“I feel every encounter breaks the morale of the criminals. When such news spreads among the criminals, it gives a strong message. They look for cover and go underground,” said Neeraj Kumar.
Another video taken at around 6.30 a.m., just half an hour before the encounter, shows media cars chasing the convoy being stopped.
When mediapersons questioned the SSP, Kanpur, on being stopped, the officer chose not to respond.
An eyewitness said that he had heard gunshots in the area but the police asked them to leave.
“We heard sounds of gunshots. When we came here, we were sent away. There was no accident at that time,” Ashish Paswan, a passer-by, told reporters.
Another video clip that casts a shadow on the police account of the encounter is one in which Vikas Dubey is brought to the hospital with blood smeared over his chest.
The police said that he ran on wet mud since it was raining at that time, and fell after being shot at. However, there was no mud on his clothes and his trousers were absolutely clean.
The UP STF has now claimed that a herd of cows and buffaloes suddenly appeared before the vehicle that was bringing gangster Vikas Dubey to Kanpur and this caused the accident, following which he tried to escape but was shot dead.
“The herd of cows, buffaloes suddenly came in front of the vehicle and the driver swerved the vehicle causing it to overturn,” said a statement released by the UP STF on Friday evening.
The STF further said that they immediately took Dubey to the hospital for “first aid” but the doctors declared him dead after examination.
Inspector Shivendra Singh and constable Vimal Yadav were injured in the firing by Dubey.
The STF officials did not respond to a question on why there was no mud on Dubey’s clothes if he had been shot dead while trying to escape through a wet and muddy area.
As Dubey had a surgical rod in one leg, which made him walk with a limp, how could he run so fast from the accident spot, it was asked.
The STF was asked why vehicles of media persons were stopped 500 m from the site of the encounter before the alleged accident took place.
Many believe that Vikas Dubey would have been instrumental in unearthing the network between gangsters, politicians and policemen. His encounter also abruptly brought a full stop to the possibility of exposing the nexus.
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