Balrampur (Uttar Pradesh): Dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey, who was recently killed in an encounter, would have died long back in 1998, if a bullet fired at him by a constable had not missed.
Devendra Pratap Singh, who is currently stationed as a head constable at the summon cell of Balrampur court, had an encounter with Vikas Dubey back in 1998.
Singh was deployed as part of a special squad at the Kalyanpur Police Station in 1998.
BJP leader Santosh Shukla, who later became a minister, had tipped off the police that Dubey was coming to Kanpur to commit a crime.
"We put up barricades near the police station. But we knew that he (Dubey) was a hardened criminal and would break the barricades. As expected, he started firing and even ran his bike over the inspector," Singh recalled.
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"He started escaping, but my colleague and I chased him. I fired at him, but missed. He then fell down and I held on to him for around 30 seconds, before additional forces arrived and apprehended him," he added.
Dubey possibly got false case filed against Singh
Singh suspected that it could have been his enmity with Dubey, which led to him being named in a false case. Singh said that a false case was filed against an SI and him in 1999. While the SI was acquitted in 2005, Singh's case file went missing from the court, and his case is still pending. Singh suspects that Dubey must have got this done using his contacts.
"I think he could not forget me," Singh remarked.
Dubey mistook Devendra Sing for Devendra Mishra
According to reports, CO Devendra Mishra, who was martyred in the Bikru encounter, had warned Dubey that one of his legs was defective, and he would damage the other one as well. Singh said this could have led to the gangster mistaking him for Mishra, as it during the 1998 incident that one of Dubey's legs got badly injured.
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