Eight policemen in Uttar Pradesh were shot dead in the wee hours of Friday at a village in Kanpur where they had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey, a criminal wanted for murder. The policemen arrived to indiscriminate firing from rooftops by the criminal and his associates.
A Deputy Superintendent of Police, Devendra Kumar Mishra, three sub-inspectors and four constables were killed in Dikru village, which is 150 km from Lucknow.
Teams from three police stations had gone to the village in search of a wanted criminal – Vikas Dubey – charged in 60 criminal cases. A raid was planned at his village after he was accused in a fresh attempt to murder case.
“The intention was to arrest him. There was an ambush. The firing by criminals was from three sides and it was totally planned,” said Dinesh Kumar, Kanpur’s police chief.
According to a statement by UP Director General of Police (DGP) HC Awasthi, Vikas Dubey and other men had put up road blocks on the routes that lead to the village. Once the cops removed them and managed to get to the village, they were fired at from rooftops by shooters who were apparently waiting for them.