Gangster’s TV studio surrender rumours turn Film City into fortress

Noida: Police threw a cordon around Film City, Delhi-NCR’s biggest media district, on Wednesday amid a swirl of speculation that fugitive gangster Vikas Dubey, wanted for the murder of eight UP Police cops on July 3, would surrender in Noida.
But why Film City? With Dubey fleeing from Faridabad on Tuesday night, there was a surge in conjecture that Dubey would surrender in Noida, at a TV channel’s studio instead of going to the Surajpur court where police were deployed in large numbers. As a result, check points were set up in and around Film City. Noida’s borders with Delhi, Ghaziabad and Faridabad were also heavily guarded.
DCP (Noida) Sankalp Sharma told TOI security was beefed up and checking drives were carried out at the borders as well as Film City and Surajpur. At all these points, cops asked commuters to take off their masks so that facial recognition technology could be used.
Additional DCP (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said police went on alert as soon as Dubey’s presence was confirmed in Faridabad since Noida shares a border with the Haryana district. ‘There is speculation that he is trying to surrender but police is determined to catch the notorious gangster,” Singh said.
While the focus remained on the Surajpur area during the day, speculation about Dubey changing plans and slipping into Film City to take the police by surprise gained currency. By afternoon, deployment outside Film City had been stepped up, though there were no concrete leads on Dubey being in Noida or anywhere in the vicinity of the neighbourhood from India’s leading media companies operate.