Gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter after a road accident morning today while being taken to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh from Madhya Pradesh, where he was arrested yesterday. Vikas Dubey snatched the gun of a policeman and tried to run but was surrounded, said the police, asserting that they had tried to get him to surrender.
Just an hour short of Kanpur, the car in which Vikas Dubey was being taken, one of three in the police convoy, overturned on the rain-slicked highway and he tried to escape, according to the police. He was shot dead, like many of his accomplices who, according to the police, had also tried to escape from custody.
"The car overturned and policemen and the accused were injured. Then Vikas Dubey grabbed a gun from an injured policeman and ran. The police team caught up and surrounded him and tried to get him to surrender, but he refused and started firing. The police had to fire back in self-defence," the Kanpur police said in a statement.
"Vikas Dubey was injured and taken to hospital. He died during treatment," said the statement.
Visuals after the incident showed Vikas Dubey being taken away on a stretcher.
On the run since he organized the massacre of policemen at his village in Kanpur last Friday, Vikas Dubey was arrested yesterday at the famous Mahakal temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. He was spotted by temple security guards when he bought prasad and entered the temple. When he was confronted by the guards, he lashed out and was taken to the police.
Dubey, in his 50s, had over 60 criminal cases against him, including murder, kidnapping and extortion. His alleged links with the police and politicians helped him stay out of jail for years.