Vikas Dubey's family, maid returns to Lucknow after cremation: Police

Vikas Dubey's wife, son and maid, who were picked up by the STF for questioning in connection with the deadly ambush of a police team, returned to their home in Lucknow after the gangster's cremation in Kanpur, police said on Saturday.

The gangster's wife, Richa Dubey, their son and maid were kept at a mahila police station in Kanpur after being brought from their Krishna Nagar residence in Lucknow for questioning, a police official said in Kanpur. He said Richa Dubey and the maid were questioned for more than 5 hours.

They returned to Lucknow Friday, another police official said here.

However, they have not appeared in public since the cremation in Kanpur on Friday, when Richa Dubey said her husband "did wrong and he deserved this fate."

Kanpur Jail Superintendent R K Jaiswal told PTI that neither Richa Dubey nor her maid were taken to the district jail or the makeshift jail in Chaubeypur near the gangster's village Bikru due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In Bikru village, where eight policemen were ambushed last week when they had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey, the administration has stepped up security and deployed the Rapid Action Force.

Police personnel on a vehicle were making an announcement to the villagers to share information about those who snatched police weapons during the encounter within 24 hours. Nearly 60 policemen had been keeping a vigil outside the demolished house of Vikas Dubey after the news spread that the gangster was killed in on Friday.

The policemen were sitting on wooden beds under a neem tree, watching a steady stream of media persons arriving with a variety of questions. A broken baseball bat, damaged tractors, and a few two-wheelers and an SUV were seen inside the building, around 18 km from Chaubeypur police station.

Meanwhile, two aides of the gangster were arrested by the ATS from Thane in Maharashtra. The accused Arvind alias Guddan Trivedi and his driver Sonu Tiwari were wanted in connection with the killing of eight police personnel in the ambush and also in the 2001 murder of minister of state Santosh Shukla, an official said.

Vikas Dubey was shot dead Friday by police, who claim he was trying to flee after the car carrying him from Ujjain overturned on an isolated stretch on the outskirts of Kanpur. The SUV toppled on the road which was slippery following rainfall, police claimed. According to a statement from the Special Task Force, the driver had tried to avoid cattle on the road.

Police said the gangster snatched a pistol from one of the policemen injured in the accident and was shot when he opened fire in a bid to escape.

Six policemen, including two from the Special Task Force, were injured in the accident and the exchange of fire around 6 am on Friday, an official said.