Vikas Dubey, dreaded history sheeter and gangster from Kanpur, who has built an empire for himself by terrorising people, was arrested yesterday from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, after a six-day long manhunt was launched by the Uttar Pradesh administration and law enforcement agencies, following the cold-blooded murder of 8 police personnel at the goons of Dubey. After his arrest, the gangster was subsequently handed over to the UP Police. However, according to police, the car carrying him from Ujjain back to his home city, met with an accident in the outskirts of Kanpur, having collided with a road divider.
Subsequent to the mishap, Vikas Dubey attempted an escape, says the police. He snatched a pistol, and when the officers tried to get hold of the man, fired at them. As a result, the police were forced to shoot the man, which led to his death. It must be remembered that only a week ago, the UP Police had lost 8 of its personnel, and as such, they could not afford a similar scenario this morning, at the hands of Dubey himself, who was armed, and had gone rogue. Dubey is the sixth man to die in a police encounter after the ambush he masterminded in Kanpur’s Bikru village on July 2 led to the death of multiple police personnel, including a DSP.
The usual suspects, which include opposition parties and members of left-liberal circles in India, are calling the incident an “extra-judicial killing”, on expected lines. They refuse to believe the police’s version, and are almost certain that Dubey has not been given justice. This, despite the fact that Dubey had been linked directly to 60 crimes which were reported, while the number of crimes he actually committed would be innumerable. This has not stopped many from pouncing upon the Yogi Adityanath government.
Vikas Dubey has a record of over 60 criminal cases, which include murder, attempt to murder, inciting riots, among others. In 2001, the man had murdered Santosh Shukla, a Kanpur BJP leader and then Minister of State. He was chased and shot dead inside the Shivli police station. Such was the fear of the Dubey, that no police personnel chose to testify against him, even in a high-profile murder like that of Shukla’s.
Yogi Adityanath’s commitment to ensure maintenance of law and order in the state is not a subject of debate. Such was the ferocious enforcement of the law after Yogi took over the reigns in 2017, that erstwhile gangsters and criminals were willingly surrendering before the UP Police, as they thought the jails to be a safer place to be in. At no point in time has the state police been told to tone down its actions, instead, it has been given a completely free hand by the Chief Minister himself to bring down crime rate in the state.
The death of Vikas Dubey should serve as a wakeup call to all the mafias, gangsters and gundas who have grown from strength to strength in previous years, allegedly under the direct patronage of parties like the SP and BSP. Under the Yogi regime, notwithstanding how high and mighty any criminal might be, they will all be made to face the law, and if they try to act smart, will be exterminated.
The fact remains that Yogi Adityanath has had to clean the mess left over by subsequent years of SP and BSP rule over Uttar Pradesh, under whose governments, criminals flourished like never before, and were able to attain a supreme-leader like status in their areas of influence, by inflicting terror upon ordinary citizens. Those who had absolutely no qualms about crimes in Uttar Pradesh proliferating unfettered prior to 2017 are suddenly now enraged over the encounter of Vikas Dubey.
The UP Police’s messaging with the encounter of Vikas Dubey is crystal clear. Absolutely no criminal will be spared for so long as Yogi Adityanath remains at the helm of affairs in the state, and that gangsters like Vikas Dubey are living on borrowed time.