UP Police takes transit remand of Vikas Dubey’s aides from Thane court

Trivedi and his driver were produced in the Thane court around 2:45 pm on Monday and were given transit remand till July 16.

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police took the transit remand of Arvind Ramvilas Trivedi, a key aide of slain gangster Kanpur Vikas Dubey, and Trivedi’s driver Sushilkumar Suresh Tiwari from a Thane court on Monday.

Arvind Ramvilas Trivedi andSuresh Tiwari had fled from UP soon after the killing of eight police personnel. (PTI)

Inspector Gyan Singh, who is an investigating officer (IO) in the killing of eight police personnel by Dubey and his henchmen at his native village Bikru in UP’s Kanpur district in the intervening night of July 2 and 3, arrived in Mumbai on Sunday night along with other constables for the transit remand proceedings.

Trivedi and his driver were produced in the Thane court around 2:45 pm on Monday and were given transit remand till July 16.

Defence lawyer Anil Jadhav said, “The accused are not safe to travel by road due to heavy monsoon rains and also because of the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak the train service has been suspended. The accused are scared to travel to Kanpur from Mumbai by road. UP Police should take them by flight.”

Trivedi and Tiwari had fled from UP soon after the killing of eight police personnel.

Initially, they had gone to Madhya Pradesh, where Maharashtra Police believed that they had met Dubey and then proceeded towards Pune by hiding in a truck. Then, they took a truck and came to Thane, where they were staying at Kolshet area, said an official of Anti-terror Squad (ATS), Maharashtra Police.

Acting on a tip-off, the Juhu unit of the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Trivedi and Tiwari from Thane’s Kolshet area on Saturday morning.

Soon, the UP Police authorities were informed about their arrest.

Trivedi is allegedly involved in the murder of UP minister Santosh Shukla, who was killed inside the Shivli police station in Kanpur in 2001.

Dubey was the main accused in the case, where 25 policemen, who had appeared as eyewitnesses to the murder, turned hostile during the trial.

The UP government had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information on Trivedi’s whereabouts after the Bikru village massacre of eight police personnel.