Three more aides of Vikas Dubey arrested in Uttar Pradesh

Kshama Dubey, the wife of Vikas Dubey's nephew Sanjay Dubey along with two other people have been arrested in connection with Kanpur encounter case. They were allegedly helping Vikas Dubey and his henchmen when the shootout occurred near the criminal's residence in Bikru village.

Kanpur: The police have arrested three people from Bikru village, late on Monday night, for allegedly helping Vikas Dubey and his men in spotting the policemen who were hiding when the shootout took place on July 3.

Kshama Dubey is the wife of Vikas Dubey's nephew, Sanjay Dubey, and she did not open the doors of their house when one of the cops knocked looking for a hideout to save his life during the shootout.

SSP Kanpur Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said, "Instead, Kshama informed Vikas and his aides about the location of the policemen. Armed with semi-automatic weapons, Vikas's aides reached her house through roofs and shot dead all the policemen, who were standing near the door of her house."

The police have also arrested Rekha Agnihotri, wife of Dubey's cook, Daya Shankar, who was earlier arrested following a brief encounter on Sunday.

Rekha, who also worked as a maid at Vikas's house, helped shooters zero in on a group of other policemen, who had taken refuge behind a wall opposite Vikas's house. "When shooters opened fire at policemen, Rekha was cheering them and yelling that none of the policemen should return alive," said the official.

Suresh Verma, the third person arrested on Monday night, was also applauding the shooters.

The SSP said, "We have arrested the three from their hideouts and booked them under Section 120B. They would be produced in the court and will be sent to jail later."

According to police, the three were giving information to Dubey and his henchmen when the shootout occurred at the criminal's residence in Bikru village in Kanpur on July 3.

Police said that they were giving all information about the police personnel's location to Dubey during the encounter.

The SSP said that they were part of the gang that laid a trap for the police team which was raiding Bikru village.

At least eight policemen, including a deputy superintendent, were killed and seven were injured after an encounter broke out between them and a wanted criminal on the intervening night of July 2 and 3.

As the police team was about to reach the hideout of the dreaded criminal, a hail of bullets was showered on them from a building rooftop, leaving Deputy SP Devendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables dead.

Seven others, including a civilian, were injured in the attack.

Among the deceased were Circle Officer, Bilhor, Devendra Kumar Mishra, Shivrajpur police station officer Mahesh Chandra Yadav.

The deceased sub-inspectors and Station Incharge were Nebu Lal of Shivrajpur Police station and Anup Kumar Singh of Mandhana Police station. Four constables, namely Sultan Singh, Rahul, Bablu and Jitendra of Chaubeypur police station were also killed in the encounter.

However, the prime accused Dubey is still on the run but a member of his gang Daya Shankar Agnihotri was arrested by the Police after a brief exchange of fire on Sunday. The incident had led to national outrage even as Vikas Dubey remains out of reach of the police.

(With inputs from IANS)