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Kanpur shootout probe: More policemen under scanner for links with accused
The policemen are in addition to Chaubeypur station officer Vinay Tiwari who was suspended on Saturday for his allegedly suspicious role in the failed raid.
Some more policemen are under investigation after the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force found that they had been in touch with Vikas Dubey, the prime accused in the shootout in which eight police personnel were killed at Bikru village in Kanpur on July 3, according to a senior police officer.
These policemen are in addition to Chaubeypur station officer Vinay Tiwari who was suspended on Saturday for his allegedly suspicious role in the failed raid.
Inspector general of police, Kanpur, Mohit Agarwal said, “Three policemen were in touch (with Dubey) and a parallel investigation is going on to unearth this nexus.”
Also read: How did gangster Vikas Dubey get information about Kanpur raid?
“Services of the police personnel in league with him will be terminated and they will face a criminal trial,” he said. Another official, who did not wish to be named, said the entire staff of the Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur was under suspect.
But what has startled the investigators is the enormity of support the gangster had on caste-lines from some police personnel, according to those privy to the probe.
Two senior police officers of deputy SP rank, one of them currently posted as a circle officer, a number of sub-inspectors and constables have also been questioned.
The deputy SP posted in Kanpur was asked why did he not follow the routine procedure of invoking the Gangster’s Act for registering Dubey’s gang at the district level after another shootout, which Vikas Dubey’s men allegedly carried out in Kalyanpur.
The officer was questioned in the context of a murderous assault on Vikas Dubey’s brother Anurag Dubey in Kalyanpur. Anurag’s wife Rita had lodged an FIR naming Vikas, his closest aides Pawan Tiwari, Aman Tiwari and two others with the police on April 18, 2018.
“The officer kept mum on repeated questions about why he went soft on him (Dubey). The reaction of others was no different,” said an official involved with the investigation.
Sub-inspectors and constables were a bit more forthcoming on this issue and said Vikas Dubey used to take good care of men from a particular caste.
“Otherwise, he was abusive with all the policemen he spoke to over the phone or in person. Woh seedhe gaali dekar baat karta tha (he used to abuse cops right from the start),” the policemen said, adding that they were afraid of him.
They preferred to extend support rather than be in his bad books, said an official.
The caste support that Vikas Dubey allegedly enjoyed from some policemen was the reason that despite 60 known criminal cases against him and a career in crime spanning 28 years, he did not figure on the list of top 10 criminals of Kanpur, those privy to the probe said. The police never registered his gang’s name at the district level, they added.
Before the shootout on July 3, Vikas Dubey had spoken to a sub-inspector who is now being investigated, said a senior officer.
“A number of examples show that not only the mid-level officers and the constabulary but senior police officers also remained soft due to the caste factor. He survived all these years because of his activities on caste lines. It involved not only the police personnel but also politicians, businessmen and so on,” said an official who did not want to be named.
