Kanpur, Jul 4(UNI) Uttar Pradesh police is yet to make any headway in nabbing the most wanted criminal Vikas Dubey even 24 hours after the brutal killing of eight policemen here.
UP DGP H C Awasthi said here on Saturday that several teams of STF and police were in several places in search of Dubey and his accomplices who were involved in the killings early Friday.
Already two of his associates had been killed by police in the encounter yesterday noon. Around 100 teams have been formed to nab the criminals.
The DGP said that while the reward on the gangster been increased to Rs 50,000, the government will invoke NSA against him.
Mr Awasthi said a high-level probe has been ordered to find out the reason behind the lapses leading to killing of such large number of policemen.
However, a senior police officer said that very soon Dubey would be caught as police have received some vital information about his whereabouts.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Vikas could surrender in the court in any district to prevent threat of police killing him in an encounter.
Ms Sarla Devi, mother of the master-mind, who stays in Lucknow, too has asked the police to kill her son to avenge the killings.
An investigation, to find out whether there was an informer in the police who tipped-off the criminal about the raid, is also underway.
Three policemen of Choubepur police station, including a sub inspector, a policeman and a home guard jawan, are in the radar of the investigation and their mobile call details were being checked.
Senior police officials admitted that Dubey had all information about the police raid and they had planned accordingly.
The policemen injured in the attack too have disclosed about the conspiracy and use of AK-47 assault rifles by the criminals.
Two mobile phones, probably of Vikas, have been seized from his residence in Bikaru village and the call details were being scrutinised.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who rushed to Kanpur to pay his floral tribute to the martyred policemen, had announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore each to the 8 families along with a government job and extraordinary pension.
The CM has directed stern action against the criminals.
Meanwhile, the bodies of all the eight policemen have reached at their respective native villages and will be cremated with full state honours this afternoon.
Eight policemen, including three officers, were ambushed and seven were injured when they went to arrest the 52-year-old dreaded criminal in Bikaru village in Choubeypur police station area.
Among the martyred policemen include Circle officer (CO) Bilaur Devendra Mishra, SO Shivrajpur Mahesh Yadav, Chowki incharge Madhana Anup Kumar, Sub inspector Shivrajpur Nebulal and constables Sultan Singh of Choubeypur police station, Rahul, Jitendra and Bablu, all constables of Bithore police station.
The seven injured policemen were admitted to hospital and were recovering.
There were around 60 cases of murder and kidnapping pending on the criminal Vikas including one in which he had killed a BJP leader and the then minister Santosh Shukla inside Shibli police station in 2001 back.
UNI MB SB 1226