The 7-day manhunt that led to Kanpur gangster Vikas Dubey's arrest

At least eight Uttar Pradesh police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, were killed in an encounter with dreaded criminal Vikas Dubey and his gang members in Kanpur on the intervening night of July 2 and July 3.

The encounter took place when the police team was approaching to arrest Dubey, a history-sheeter facing 60 criminal cases, in Dikru village under Chaubeypur police station.

As the police team was about to reach the hideout of the dreaded criminal, a hail of bullets was showered on them from a building rooftop, leaving deputy SP Devendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables dead. The notorious criminal might have got an inkling of the impending raid.

He and his henchmen put up massive roadblocks to prevent the police personnel from proceeding towards their hideout. As the police team was caught unawares, the criminals fired at them from a building rooftop leading to the deaths.


On July 3, the Inspector General Kanpur informed that two criminals allegedly involved in the encounter have been neutralised.


The Yogi Adityanath government initially announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for anyone giving information about Dubey. The government assured that the identity of anyone who provides information will be kept secret. The reward was later scaled up to Rs 5 lakh.

The UP Police on July 4 suspended from service the station officer of Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur district in view of allegations of his involvement in the encounter.


On July 4, authorities reached the village along with a team and started to demolish the well-fortified house of the gangster.

It was learnt that police had got Dubey's father and his family along with servants to vacate the premises and cordoned off an area of 50 metres around the house before launching the demolition drive. Even the structures used to park vehicles within the compound were demolished.

The police also announced that it will seize illegal properties and money in Dubey's bank accounts under the Gangsters Act.

The police arrested Daya Shankar Agnihotri, an accomplice of Dubey, from Kalyanpur, Kanpur. Agnihotri was arrested in the wee hours of July 5 following an encounter last night. The police shot in Agnihotri's leg. There was a reward of Rs 25,000 to find him. The accused person opened fire at the police late last night while police were coming to arrest him. Police also recovered a gun and cartridges from Agnihotri's possession.

Dubey had received a phone call from the police station before the police came to arrest him following which he had called other accomplices and fired bullets on the police personnel, claimed Daya Shankar Agnihotri.


Police also took into custody the sub-divisional officer 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.

Three more people including a close relative of gangster Dubey involved in the attackwere arrested by the UP police.

Three Uttar Pradesh police personnel were suspended on July 6 on suspicion that they were involved in tipping off Vikas Dubey, the main accused in Kanpur encounter case.

The Uttar Pradesh STF also took the son of Dubey's brother-in-law into their custody.

The Uttar Pradesh government on July 7 removed the state's STF DIG, Anant Deo, amid a raging controversy over a letter purportedly written to him by slain Dy SP Devendra Mishra alleging a nexus between gangster Vikas Dubey and suspended Chaubeypur police station in-charge.

All 68 personnel of the Chaubepur police station were transferred to the district police lines late on the evening of July 7 amid doubts over their professional integrity, an official said.

Three persons close to gangster Vikas Dubey, who was involved in the ambush of policemen in Kanpur, were arrested on July 8 from Haryana's Faridabad in a joint operation by Uttar Pradesh STF and local crime branch team.

Dubey was in Faridabad and had tried to take a room in a hotel, whose CCTV footage went viral, the official said.

However, he escaped before the local police could conduct a raid. As per the intelligence reports, Vikas had stayed at in a small-budget hotel located in the populated Badkhal Chowk area under a fake identity.


Amar Dubey, a close aide of history-sheeter Dubey killed in an encounter with the Uttar Pradesh Task Force (STF) in UP's Hamirpur on July 8.

Hours after killing Dubey's close aide in Hamirpur, another associate of the gangster Shyamu Bajpai was arrested on July 8 in an encounter in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur. Bajpai, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000, sustained bullet injury on his leg

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on July 8 detained Dubey's brother-in-law from Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol district.

Two aides of gangster Vikas Dubey, wanted in connection with the Kanpur ambush in which eight policemen were killed, were gunned down in separate encounters in Uttar Pradesh on July 9.

While Kartikeya alias Prabhat was killed in Kanpur when he tried to flee from police custody, another aide of Vikas Dubey, Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey, was shot dead in an encounter in Etawah.

Meanwhile, another associate of Vikas Dubey, wanted in connection with last week's Kanpur ambush, was killed in an encounter in Etawah.