Gangster Vikas Dubey’s convoy never reached Kanpur court | What Happened

India woke up on the morning of July 10 to news of gangster Vikas Dubey's death.

According to the timeline, Vikas Dubey was gunned down by the Special Task Force (STF) in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh roughly 12 hours after the convoy of police personnel accompanying him left Ujjain at 7.30 PM on Thursday night.

Vikas Dubey was spotted and nabbed at the Mahakaleshwar temple in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain on Thursday. He had been absconding since July 2, the night he set up an ambush at his residence in Kanpur's Bikru village where his aides opened fire at a police team killing eight cops and injuring seven others.

Questions have been raised over the manner in which a dreaded gangster with over 60 criminal cases against him managed to sneak past police in three states without being recognised. Videos of Vikas Dubey casually walking around with police and temple security personnel only added to the suspicion of opposition leaders in MP who termed his arrest a 'staged surrender

Around 7 AM on July 10, the car in which Vikas Dubey was seated along with policemen Ramakant Pachauri, Pankaj Singh, Anoop Singh, Satyavir and Pradip Kumar overturned on the National Highway opposite Kanhaiya Lal Hospital under the limits of the Sachendi police station in Kanpur district.

In its press note, STF claims that Vikas Dubey tried to take advantage of the situation. He lifted officer Pachauri's service weapon and attempted to flee the spot, the note says adding that Dubey opened fire at STF personnel when they caught up with him. Attempts were made to capture him alive but after he opened fire, STF Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Tej Pratap Singh and others retaliated in self-defence injuring the criminal, STF added.

Vikas was rushed to a government hospital where doctors declared him dead, the STF's press note states. It also says that two policemen suffered injuries after Dubey started firing indiscriminately at the police team.

A team of forensic experts was later deployed at the encounter site along with dog squads to collect evidence. A 9 MM service weapon and two empty bullet casings were recovered from the spot, as per the STF.

Gangster Vikas Dubey's body was moved to the mortuary at Kanpur's Hallet hospital where a team of three doctors, namely Dr Arvind Awasthi, Dr Shashikant and Dr Vipul Chaturvedi, conducted the post-mortem. The entire process that went on for an hour was captured on video.

Three bullets hit Dubey, two in the chest and one in the hip. A preliminary conclusion suggests that excessive blood loss was the cause of death. It has also come to light that all three bullets pierced through Dubey's body, indicating that they were fired from close range.

Doctor Navneet Chaudhary told India Today that the post-mortem report has been shared with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and the Superintendent of Police (SP).

Following the post-mortem, Vikas Dubey's brother-in-law Dinesh Tiwari collected his body and took it to Bhairav Ghat in Kanpur where it was cremated on Friday evening. Dubey's wife Richa and his minor son were also present at the cremation site.

While Vikas Dubey's chapter has been closed, the manner in which he was shot dead without being produced before a court in Kanpur city to answer for his crimes has triggered widespread criticism of the Uttar Pradesh Police and its organised crime unit, the STF.

On the one hand, kin of policemen killed during the ambush in Bikru village said justice has been done. Whereas, others pointed out that details about cops who tipped Vikas Dubey off or politicians who shielded him all these years have been cremated with the gangster.

Opposition leaders have demanded a CBI inquiry into Vikas Dubey's death. A complaint has also been filed in this regard by Tehseen Poonawalla with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

However, inconsistencies in the STF's version of events and first-hand accounts of media persons closely accompanying the convoy raise more questions than they answer. The event, without a doubt is a reminder of Cyberabad where four men accused of gang-rape were shot dead by the police during an alleged bid to evade custody.

The most unforgettable takeaways from the incident can be summed up in two images. The first being that of several locals flocking to the encounter site on Friday, seen clicking selfies.

At the same time, the second image was that of policemen being garlanded and fed laddoos right outside the mortuary where Vikas Dubey's post-mortem was taking place, the same man who the police were responsible for producing before a court of law.