Who was Vikas Dubey? 62 cases, including 5 of murder – Kanpur ambush prime accused had a chequered past

Kanpur gangster Vikas Dubey killed in encounter.

Dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter on Friday, a week after he gunned down 8 Uttar Pradesh Police personnel in an ambush at his Bikru village in Kanpur. Police had launched a massive hunt to arrest him and five of his close aides were killed and several including his wife arrested in the process.

Vikas Dubey, believed to be in his 50s, was involved in at least 60 criminal cases. Police had gone to arrest him in a fresh attempt to murder case last week. But he and his henchmen killed 8 cops during the raid and escaped from the crime scene.

In 2001, Vikas Dubey chased down a BJP leader who was then MoS in the Uttar Pradesh government, Santosh Shukla, inside Shivli police station in Kanpur Dehat, and shot him dead in broad daylight. He was named in the FIR and he surrendered after some six months. Dubey was, however, acquitted four years later.

Before this, Vikas Dubey had allegedly killed one Jhunna Baba in his village and grabbed his land and other properties in 1999. In 2000, Dubey murdered Sidheshwar Pandey, a manager at Tarachand Inter College in Kanpur.

He was accused of plotting the murder of one Ram Babu Yadav from the prison in the same year.

Dubey himself won the Shivrajpur seat in a zila panchayat poll in 2000. He was in the jail at that time.

Dubey then started receiving political support. In 2002, he allegedly made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of his rival and Nagar Panchayat adhyaksha Lallan Bajpai.

He was also linked to the murder of a cable operator named Dinesh Dubey in 2004, who was killed over a dispute about Rs 20,000. He allegedly committed another murder in 2013. He was accused of ordering the killing of his cousin Anurag in 2018, while he was himself in jail.

According to police, there were 62 criminal cases against Vikas Dubey including five cases of murder and eight cases of attempt to murder. Police have invoked stringent laws such as the UP Gangsters’ Act, Goonda Act, and the National Security Act against him.

Meanwhile, a photo of Vikas Dubey is being circulated on social media that showed him at an event next to an Uttar Pradesh minister, who switched parties to join the ruling BJP.

Another picture showed a poster of him appealing for votes for his wife, Richa Dubey, in a zila panchayat election which she won from Ghimau under which Bikru village falls. The poster also carried pictures of two leaders now in the opposition, implying that she had their support.