The aide, Dayashankar Agnihotri, was injured in his leg in retaliatory firing by police after he tried to attack them and flee, the official said, adding that no police personnel was hurt.

Police have also taken into custody the sub-divisional officer (SDO) and another employee of the power sub-station from where electricity supply was interrupted on the intervening night of Thursday-Friday at the time of the police raid at Dubey’s house in Bikru village. Police also questioned the man responsible for disconnecting the power supply, a senior police official said, adding that the man confessed to having snapped the power lines on instructions of a caller who claimed that he was calling from the nearby Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur district.

According to sources, the phone number from which the line worker was contacted belongs to the Chaubeypur police station. However, police have not given any information on who ordered the power supply interruption during the raid. After being taken into custody, Agnihotri told reporters that Dubey had got a call from someone in the police department informing him about his imminent arrest, and after that he called his men for a face-to-face confrontation with the police.

Allegations had earlier surfaced against Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer of Chaubeypur police station in whose jurisdiction the incident took place, following which he was suspended on Saturday. It was alleged that Tiwari had alerted Dubey that a police team was on the way to his house to arrest him, following which the gangster and his men attacked the police personnel resulting in the slaying of eight of them. Dubey is absconding over two days after the incident. Police sources said Dubey had disabled all the cameras before fleeing the crime scene and took the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with him. More than 25 police teams mostly headed by senior officials have carried out raids at hundreds of locations in various districts, police said, adding that they also carried out searches near the border with Nepal and in other States