The main aide of gangster Vikas Dubey, the main accused in the killing of eight policemen in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, was arrested after a gunfight earlier on Sunday, a senior police officer said. 

Dayashankar Agnihotri alias ‘Kallu’ used to accompany Dubey everywhere and was staying at his house, which was demolished by the police, on Saturday.

Agnihotri carried a cash reward of Rs 25,000 and was named accused in the firing incident on the policemen. During the encounter, he suffered bullet injuries in his leg, Inspector General, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal told PTI.

The encounter took place at around 4.30 am in Kalyanpur area of Kanpur. After getting injured, he was taken to the Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital. The police recovered a country-made pistol and two cartridges from his possession, said Superintendent of Police (west), Anil Kumar.

In a startling revelation, Agnihotri told reporters that Dubey had received a call from someone in the police department informing him about his imminent arrest, and after that, he called his men for a face-to-face confrontation with the police.

Allegations had earlier surfaced against Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer (SO) of Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur district in whose jurisdiction the incident took place, for alerting Dubey that a police team was moving towards his house to arrest him, following which the gangster and his men attacked the police personnel resulting in the slaying of eight of them. The SO was suspended on Saturday.

In the early hours of Sunday, police got a tip-off and tried to stop Agnihotri on the Kalyanpur-Shivli road when he opened fire on them. While Agnihotri was shot in his leg, no policemen were injured. 

Meanwhile, the police has increased the cash reward on Dubey from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh. 

When asked about the action being taken against suspended SO Tiwari, Agarwal said, “He (Vinay Tiwari) has been sent to Police Lines. He has not been detained. Investigations are going on. If any evidence is found which suggests that Tiwari was part of the conspiracy, then he will be detained.”

On the demolition of Dubey’s house, Agarwal said, “Police had information that Dubey had hidden a lot of arms and ammunition in a bunker. There was also information about him hiding arms and ammunition in the walls of the house. The walls were broken in order to search for the weapons. When the walls were broken, the roof also collapsed. Large amount of ammunition was recovered in the digging”. 

On Friday, as many as eight police personnel, which includes deputy superintendent of police, three sub-inspectors and four constables, were killed, late on Thursday, when they went to nab gangster Dubey in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur.