An aide of Vikas Dubey has told the Uttar Pradesh police that the gangster behind the killings of eight policemen in Kanpur district was informed about the raid at his house by a policeman, a senior official said on Sunday.
Daya Shankar Agnihotri, one of the accused in the killings, was arrested earlier in the day after a gunfight in Kalyanpur area near Kanpur.
The senior official said Agnihotri revealed the information during the interrogation. The 48-year-old Dubey, who has 60 cases of murder and kidnapping among others, is the main accused in the killing of the policemen early on Friday.
Agnihotri told the police Vikas Dubey got a call from the Chaubeypur police station, informing him that a team from three police stations led by Devendra Mishra, the circle officer of Bilhaur, would come to his village past midnight.
Agnihotri also said that at least 25 people were present with Dubey when the police team approached his house in Kanpur’s Bikru village.
Dubey’s men had fired indiscriminately on the police team out to nab him, killing Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables in an ambush that the police said was a “well-planned conspiracy”.
{{/usCountry}}Dubey’s men had fired indiscriminately on the police team out to nab him, killing Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables in an ambush that the police said was a “well-planned conspiracy”.
{{/usCountry}}Officials have said Agnihotri suffered a bullet wound in his right leg in the retaliatory firing by the police team.
He is one of the 18 aides of Dubey named in the first information report (FIR) lodged in connection with the killing of the policemen.
Inspector general of police, Kanpur, Mohit Agarwal said Agnihotri was the right-hand man of Dubey and carried a bounty of ₹25,000 on his head at the time of his arrest.
Agnihotri has three criminal cases against him, including two of attempt to murder.
Police have seized a gun and cartridges from Agnihotri’s possession.