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

LUCKNOW: Twenty-four hours after one of the bloodiest encounters in UP left eight policemen dead in Kanpur, 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 of DSP rank 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 STF 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. Constable Jitendra Pal’s body was torn apart by a barrage of gunfire from an AK-47 and constables Rahul, Bablu and Sultan died of gunshot wounds from .315 bore rifle, said forensic experts.
Investigators were shocked by the pattern of injuries, particularly on head and shoulders, which suggest an ambush by assailants enjoying altitudinal advantage. During the midnight encounter, gangster Vikas Dubey had positioned snipers on rooftops to lay siege to the police team.

Talking to TOI, inspector general of police, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal said, “Such a guerrilla-style ambush is unprecedented in Uttar Pradesh. First a trap was laid by placing a JCB machine on the dirt road and then the gang members sprung a surprise by firing from rooftops. This is the normal strategy adopted by Maoists. A blackout was enforced on the stretch as part of the tactics.”
The officer said, accounts by injured cops suggest at least 60 men of the Dubey gang charged at the policemen, which was double the police strength of 30, including reinforcements mobilized after an SOS from Shivrajpur station officer, Mahesh Yadav, when the team was waylaid.