Why Cops Became Sitting Ducks: Intel Failure & Rooftop Siege

Kanpur: The fierce gun battle in Kanpur that left 8 policemen dead and another seven hospitalised with gunshot wounds exposed chinks in police armour and investigators are zeroing in what went wrong and how criminals got an upper hand.Though senior police officers who visited the encounter site dismiss the theory that raids were conducted in a hurry and cops were ill equipped, experts attribute the high casualties in the force to an intelligence failure, lack of police informers in a predominantly Brahmin village where the gangster holds sway along caste lines and a probable mole who tipped off Dubey. The gangster has a limp and could not have fled during the shootout, giving rise to speculation that he wriggled out even before the police arrived.
Dubey enjoys a Robin Hood image in Bikru village and adjoining areas. “None of the villagers came to the rescue of bleeding policemen and this was widely condemned even by DGP Hitesh Chandra Awasthy, while talking to the media.
Also, the police brass agree their men became sitting ducks to a barrage of bullets from rooftops and suffered locational disadvantage. The policemen were under siege with criminals showering bullets from a height in pitch darkness.
Senior officers recollect a similar high-altitude attack on Special Task Force commandos in Chitrakoot in July 2007 when six of their men fell to bullets fired by gangsters of Thokia gang, who were strategically perched atop a ridge. “The bandits opened fire from a vantage point, killing six of our men,” said a senior IPS officer who was then heading the STF.
An element of surprise also took its toll on men in khaki. The team was on his way to raid the house of gangster Vikas Dubey, but were not prepared for a brutal resistance. The criminals had placed a JCB machine to block the path of police vehicles, forcing the unsuspecting cops to walk into a trap in the dark.