Kanpur police murders: Was Vikas Dubey 'arrested' or did he 'surrender'?

Was Kanpur gangster Vikas Dubey, who was involved in the killing of eight Uttar Pradesh cops last week, arrested or did he surrender before the police in Ujjain town in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday?

While the MP police claimed that he was nabbed by a security guard at the 'Mahakal' Temple and was handed over to the police, sources here said that Vikas had 'surrendered'.

A senior UP police official here said that the state police were gathering information from their MP counterpart. ''We can not say anything at this moment,'' he added, when asked if Vikas had surrendered.

Sources, however, said that Vikas feared that he could be gunned down by the UP cops in a staged encounter and so he decided to surrender.

The fact that he kept shouting ''main hoon Vikas Dubey Kanpur wala' (I am Vikas Dubey from Kanpur) while being taken into custody, only buttressed the contention that he wanted to identify himself before everyone, especially the local media.

And Vikas's fears were not unfounded.

Since the killing of the cops last week, the UP police had shot dead five aides of Vikas in 'encounters' in different places in the state.

Senior UP IPS officer Amitabh Thakur also said that Vikas had surrendered. ''UP police failed to arrest him and he managed to surrender,'' Thakur said.

The family members of the slain CO Devendra Mishra also echoed similar views. ''Someone wants to save Vikas,'' said a member of the family.

A senior UP Congress leader questioned the role of an MP minister in the entire matter alleging that the latter had helped Vikas surrender before the cops.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav also demanded that the UP government should come out with all the details regarding 'arrest' of the gangster.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded a CBI probe into the matter.