Gangster Vikas Dubey, accused of shooting dead eight policemen in Kanpur’s Bikru village last week, was on Friday morning shot dead, allegedly in an exchange of fire with the police, while being brought to Uttar Pradesh from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, a police officer said in Kanpur.

A police officer told TV channels that the police vehicle in which the accused and the policemen were travelling overturned near Bhaunti in Kanpur.

Kanpur SP Anil Kumar told a TV channel that Dubey was killed by policemen who fired in ‘self-defence’ after the gangster took advantage of the road accident. "Vikas Dubey tried to run after snatching a pistol of an injured policeman. The police surrounded him from all four sides and tried to make him surrender, but he fired at the police. In self-defence, police fired two bullets [at Dubey] injuring him," said Mr. Kumar.

Dubey died in hospital during treatment, said UP ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar, citing a Kanpur police report.

SSP (Kanpur) Dinesh Kumar P. told reporters at the site of the incident that four policemen accompanying Dubey received injuries. He added that he had no information on why vehicles of media personnel trailing the vehicle in which Dubey was taken were stopped.

Without directly referring to Dubey, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav wrote on Twitter: "The car hasn’t overturned but the government has been saved from being overturned because of secrets."

The police had previously shot dead five aides and accomplices of Dubey in "encounters" since the ambush on the intervening night of July 2 and 3.

Dubey, on the run since the attack on the policemen, was arrested near the Mahakal temple in Ujjain on Thursday.

“He was handed over to the U.P. police, who took him to their State by road,” an M.P. police official said.