Vikas Dubey, the dreaded criminal who was arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, was identified by security personnel when he was going to the famous Mahakal temple, news agency ANI reported.
“The police were informed, and he confessed his identity after being pushed for it. He has been apprehended by police and interrogation is underway,” ANI quoted Ujjain collector Ashish Singh as saying.
In a video posted by the news agency on Twitter, the gangster in a white striped t-shirt is heard “Main Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpur wala (I am Vikas Dubey from Kanpur)” as he is held by the policemen against a van. The cops later put him in the van and left the place.
Dubey has 60 cases against him, including murder. He had been on the run since the killing of eight policemen in a shootout in Bikru village near Kanpur on July 3.
He has led the police on a chase in almost three states during which he had narrowly escaped from a hotel in Faridabad. The investigation and chase led to some startling revelations, including the alleged involvement of some policemen in Kanpur. Two of them have been arrested and many others suspended.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan congratulated the Ujjain police for Dubey’s arrest. He said that those who think the they can wash away their sins by visiting Mahakal have not understood the Lord.
Chouhan also said that he has spoken to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath and Dubey will soon be handed over to the UP Police. The police had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his arrest.
The UP Police had gunned down two more aides of Dubey om Thursday in separate encounters.
While Prabhat Mishra was killed in Kanpur when he tried to flee from police custody, Praveen Dubey was shot dead in an encounter in Etawah, the police said.
“Mishra, who was arrested from Faridabad on Wednesday, was being brought to Kanpur on transit remand and was shot dead when he tried to flee,” ADG, Law and Order Prashant Kumar said.
Five people have so far been killed in separate police encounters since the Kanpur ambush.
Eight policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police, were ambushed in Bikru village in the Chaubeypur area of Kanpur, where they had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops last Friday.