Kanpur encounter: In Maoist-style ambush, Vikas Dubey’s men cut CO’s head, toes

LUCKNOW: Twenty-four hours after one of the bloodiest encounters in Uttar Pradesh left eight policemen dead, the autopsy report revealed that the guerrilla-style attack on cops bore the Maoist signature of beheading and extreme brutality, which is not the hallmark of even the iron-fisted mafiosi operating in UP’s badlands.
While circle officer Devendra Mishra’s head and toes were severed with an axe and his body mutilated, a sub-inspector was riddled with bullets fired from point-blank range and a constable was gunned down with an AK-47, snatched from the police party. Investigators, forensic experts and special task force units probing the encounter suggest that manner in which at least 60 men of gangster Vikas Dubey ambushed the police team matched the modus operandi of Maoists in the red corridor.
Doctors on the autopsy table took out seven bullets lodged in sub-inspector Anup Singh’s body and the body of Shivrajpur station officer Mahesh Yadav bore gunshot injuries on his face, chest and shoulder.
Late Saturday, police hiked the bounty on gangster Vikas Dubey to Rs 1 lakh.
‘Local cop should have stayed put’
When reinforcements arrived, it was Tiwari’s duty to guide the backup force, which was not acclimatized with the topography, he said. “Casualties would have been less and the gangster would have been hunted down if the local inspector stayed put at ground zero,” said the IG.
Police officials also said, Tiwari would be booked if the probe finds him guilty of tipping off the gangster. IG Kanpur also said that Tiwari had no whiff about the massive storage of cache of arms while, a brawl had taken place between Dubey and police teams on Wednesday.