BRIMMING FACTS ABOUT KANPUR’S GANGSTER VIKAS DUBEY

WHO WAS VIKAS DUBEY?

Vikas Dubey was a scandalous and famed gangster and a prime accused in some 60 criminal cases in his lifetime thereby including murders. He resided in the Dikru village and according to the report of the media, he also had a private army. His business included extortion and also a hotel business in major cities of the Uttar Pradesh such as Lucknow, Gorakhpur, and Kanpur. He is especially known in Kanpur in both urban and rural areas concerning the extortion of industrialists. In addition to this, he was also a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader

CRIMINAL LIFE OF HISTORY-SHEETER:

Vikas Dubey began his criminal activities or rather entered the world of corruption as a local small-time bully & extortionist and was desperate to establish and make himself as a leader of the underworld. Two horrific incidents propelled and famed him to this status in record time!

Firstly, the murder of his school principal in broad daylight which was followed by the fearful act of Dubey washing his hands with the blood of the deceased (principal). It was only after the entreaty of the deceased's son that Vikas spared and pardon the dead body of further indignity.

Also, in the year 2000, Vikas Dubey himself won the Shivrajpur seat in a Zila Panchayat poll that he fought from prison, where he was wedged or I should say lodged after a murder charge, according to the officials.

Secondly, in 2001, Vikas Dubey allegedly shot down a BJP leader named, Santosh Shukla, after chasing him inside the Shivli police station in the Kanpur Dehat region. He was named in the FIR and had surrendered after six months after the registration of the FIR but was acquitted four years later. Almost everyone gave statements in favor of the history-sheeter.

Vikas Dubey had instilled and inculcated so much fear in the minds of people that even after being accused of murdering a BJP leader, not even a single police officer came up and gave a statement against him.

When Vikas Dubey was 20-years-old, he was first hauled to the police station because he had beaten some men from another caste for allegedly insulting his father. However, local heavyweights interfered and intervened and got him released, without a case being registered. Irony it is, right? It shows the incapacity of our police force who when is merely bribed meet hands with even leader of the underground world.

Just a year later, the first case was registered against him in 1991 under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and Section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The very next year, in 1992, Vikas hit the headlines by murdering two Dalit men and he was screamed by the media. This was the first case of murder against him, registered at the Chaubeypur Police Station of Kanpur.

Therefore, he was accused of killing a businessman named, Dinesh Dubey in the year 2004 and was also accused in the murder of Siddheshwar Pandey, who was an Assistant Manager of the Tarachand Inter College in Shivli police station area of ​​Kanpur. Further, he also attacked his cousin named, Anurag, conceiving the plan from the premises of the Mati jail.

The strengthened gangster Vikas Dubey was steadily climbing up the ladder having ranks of crime, politics, caste, and corruption. As could be expected many politicians batted favor with him because it was believed that Vikas Dubey could manipulate and control the fate of any election in his area, as he had approximately thirty thousand votes in his pocket including that of the legislative assembly and the parliament.

Vikas Dubey devised and developed ingenious and clever ways of getting sensitive inside information from the Police Stations by nurturing the junior functionaries. He was privy to all documentation concerning himself and his gang and also all proposed action at the planning stage itself, which gave Dubey a tremendous advantage.

In a short span of fifteen years, Vikas Dubey was worth thousands of crores whether it was either involuntary occupation of the disputed land, or extortions, or contract killing, Vikas Dubey figured in every arena. He had a finger in every profane pie, and it was alleged that political and senior bureaucrats were visible close to Vikas Dubey. Not only was this, but many junior police officers like inspectors, sub-inspectors, constables were also having constant fixtures at his residence.

 UP ENCOUNTER:

On the intervening night of July 2-3, 2020, the police force raid gangster’s house but who knew that it would turn into a nightmare situation.  The moment the police reached his house area to arrest in an attempted murder case, surprisingly, at least eight to ten criminals opened indiscriminate fire from the rooftops. As a result, eight policemen including Shivrajpur Station Officer Mahesh Yadav were killed in the attack. However, after the massacre, Vikas Dubey escaped from the spot of the incident.

 Whether the administrative tragedy that happened in Kanpur was avoidable? Whether the encounter in Uttar Pradesh where 8 policemen were encountered by the gangster was only a system collapse? Or whether it was also self-defeating facilitation beginning from the level of constable to the high-grade officers?

It was alleged that Vikas Dubey's escape from Kanpur was facilitated by his informers in the police department.

The Uttar Pradesh District administration on Saturday demolished Vikas Dubey's house due to the terrific deaths of eight police personnel during an attempt to arrest him. His mother, Sarla Devi, said she was "unhappy" after the razing down of her son’s house, a day after she urged police to shoot and kill him.

ENCOUNTER OF VIKAS DUBEY

The gangster Vikas Dubey was spotted in the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain of the state Madhya Pradesh where he was buying an entry ticket near the police post. He was noticed by one shopkeeper where Vikas went to buy 'prasad’ and the shopkeeper informed the police about his whereabouts. However, when Vikas was caught and asked by the police about his identity, he shouted and said-“I am Vikas Dubey of Kanpur”.

Hours after the arrest of a gangster from Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain, his wife, son, and a servant were held by the Uttar Pradesh STF  (Special Task Force) team . Vikas's wife Richa Dubey was arrested from her Krishna Nagar residence on charges of fostering the gangster as she is said to have supported Dubey in his unlawful activities. She is allegedly the part of the conspiracy that took place in Kanpur and has led to the killing of eight policemen on July 3.

A PIL was filed before the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the killing of five of Vikas Dubey's aides by the Uttar Pradesh Police. All the mentioned five men were gunned down in the encounter.

The petitioner Ghanyshyam Upadhyay, therefore, prayed that Dubey should be given adequate legal security so that he is dealt with as per the law of the nation. He further stated that “Killing of the accused by the police in the light of encounter is against the rule of law and serious violation of human rights and this is nothing short of ‘Talibanisation’ of the country.

While on July 3, 2020, when eight policemen were killed - two of his associates, namely, Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey, were killed by police in an encounter in Kanpur. On July 8, 2020, the police killed another aide, named, Amar Dubey, who carried a reward of Rs 50,000, in Maudaha village in Hamirpur district.

On July 9, 2020,  two more aides of gangster Vikas Dubey, wanted in connection with the Kanpur encounter incident, were killed in separate encounters in the districts of Kanpur and Etawah.

Further, Prabhat Mishra was killed in Kanpur when he tried to flee from police custody, and another aide of Vikas, named, Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey, was shot dead in an encounter in Etawah.

The Madhya Pradesh Police handed Vikas to the UP Police and while he was brought back to his state and in the Kanpur city, he was gunned down in an encounter with the police on 10th July 2020 and there are allegations that this was a fake encounter and not the real one.

 

AFTER ENCOUNTER SCENE-

The Supreme Court is seized of the matter and the Chief Justice of India has remarked that this incident is indicative of the failure of the system. The Supreme Court wanted to know the circumstances and the conditions under which Vikas Dubey got bail.

Whether the rise and fall of the gangster were influenced by corruption or the fragile laws and the legal functionaries?

The rise and fall of Vikas Dubey indicate terrific fault lines in policing today that the ground reality is a fragile law and order machinery which does not have legs to stand upon. If there is no course correction now, it will have tragic consequences. I understand that another area of concern relates to police reforms.

CONCLUSION:

After the fall of Vikas, it can only be hoped that it would be a wake-up call for the entire nation to ensure that such disturbing episodes shall not recur and all effective measures are taken in this direction and for the effective functioning of the criminal justice system. It should be noted that it is not just the case of one Vikas Dubey. If this ecosystem could be favorable to creating one, innumerable Vikas Dubey waiting in the shadows to unleash themselves.

Gurneet Kaur

BBA LLB (H)

ICFAI UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN

Disclaimer: This article is the personal opinion of the author. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any Indian Government or any other Government of the world. This article is only opinion and does not render ant personal or professional advice.