Don Vikas Dubey’s bodyguard shot in Bundelkhand, key aide nabbed in Shivli forests near Bikru

KANPUR: Six days after gangster Vikas Dubey’s men ambushed and killed eight cops in Kanpur, UP Police launched twin encounters in a six-hour span and shot dead the don’s lieutenant, Amar Dubey, in a pre-dawn strike in the state’s Bundelkhand region, bordering Madhya Pradesh and nabbed another wanted aide and his two accomplices in the dense Shivli forests, 2 km off ground zero, Bikru, hours after Tuesday midnight.
Continuing their inter-state operation, the STF picked up the don’s brother-in-law Raj Nigam and son, Adarsh, from Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, bordering Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
Amar Dubey, who was the don’s nephew and 24x7 bodyguard was chased and shot in Hamirpur district in a joint operation of Special Task Force and district police on a tip-off from the gangster’s three acolytes, who were picked up from a Faridabad hotel late Tuesday. Married nine days ago, Amar was on the run since the ambush and carried a bounty of Rs 50,000 for engineering the killings of cops.
“The breakthrough came when STF teams managed to intercept Amar at Maudaha Road area of Hamirpur. An under-siege Amar opened fire, but was shot dead by police,” said the ADG Prashant Kumar. An STF sleuth and a constable were injured in the exchange of fire. Amar was on top of the police hit-list, followed by 14 other henchmen. Most-wanted Amar’s sketch and posters were released along with others on Tuesday along with bounties. Amar was the third aide to be shot after the Friday bloodbath. Two others, Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey, both uncles of the don, were hunted down and shot in Shivli forest, hours after the ambush.
On June 29, Amar’s wedding was solemnized at gunpoint in Bikru village when the girl’s parents refused to marry off their daughter to a criminal. But the don coerced them to comply, said police. His mother, Kshama, and two others, including gangster’s maid, Rekha, were arrested on Monday for assisting Vikas in spotting and shooting down cops,” said police.
In the second encounter closer home, another key aide of the gangster, Shyamu Bajpai, 33, who carried Rs 25,000 bounty was arrested after a brief encounter in the Shivli jungles, where he was taken to unearth Dubey’s hidden ammunition dump along with co-accused Jahan Yadav and Sanju Dubey. When in the jungles, Bajpai suddenly dug out a hidden pistol from a ditch and opened fire at the police team. When he was fleeing, Bajpai was shot in the leg and nabbed. A pistol of .315 bore and several cartridges were recovered.