Eight cops killed, seven injured ingun battle with criminals in Kanpur

Kanpur:Eight police personnel, including a circle officer (CO) and three sub-inspectors (SIs), were shot while their seven other colleagues injured in a fierce gun battle with criminals in Chaubeypur police area of Kanpur late Thursday night.
The incident took place past midnight in Bikru village when a police team headed by CO Billhaur Devendra Kumar Mishra went there in search of gangster Vikas Dubey, wanted in a case of attempt to murder filed by one Rahul Tiwari.
Police sources said that Vikas and his aides had prior information about the police’s raid and were well-equipped with arms and ammunition and had also strategically chalked out a plan to trap and kill the police personnel.
As the team arrived in the village, it came across a heavy JCB machine parked on the road which had blocked the way.
As soon as the policemen alighted from their vehicles, the criminals, who had positioned themselves with sophisticated firearms on the roof-tops of the Vikas’s double-storey building as well as other adjacent houses opened indiscriminate firing at them. The policemen too retaliated but as the criminals were at a height, they had an upper-hand and in the ambush eight policemen including CO Billhaur Devendra Mishra, Shivrajpur police station in charge Mahesh Yadav and SIs Anup Kumar, Babu Lal and constables Sultan Singh, Rahul, Jitendra and Bablu lost their lives.
Seven others including Bithoor police station in charge Kaushlendra Pratap Singh, SIs Sudhakar Pandey and Vikas Babu and constables Ajay Singh Sengar, Ajay Kashyap, Shivmurat Nishad and homeguard Jai Ram Patel were critically injured.
The bodies of the eight policemen including that of the CO, SI Mahesh Yadav, who was the station officer of Shivrajpur, Anup Kumar, Babulal and constables Sultan Singh, Rahul, Jitendra and Bablu, have been shifted to mortuary, while six policemen including Bithoor SO, SIs Sudhakar Pandey and Vikas Babu and constables Ajay Singh Sengar, Ajay Kashyap, Shivmurat Nishad and homeguard Jai Ram Patel, who sustained bullet injuries are undergoing treatment at Regency Hospital in Kanpur.
According to the police, preliminary reports suggested that the criminals had blocked the approach road to the area by placing a JCB machine and had also switched off the high-mast light hung from an electric pole near the entrance of Vikas’s house. “It was a meticulously planned attack and the policemen got trapped in it,” said the police.
The police sources added that there were three teams for the operation. “It was when the criminals opened indiscriminate firing, two teams came in the front, while the third team was being used as a backup for the two police teams. When CO Devendra Kumar Mishra tried to take position by entering into a neighbouring house, some criminals dragged him outside and shot him in his head from close range following which he succumbed at the spot,” added police sources.
Additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar, along with SSP Dinesh Kumar Prabhu and IG Mohit Agarwal, reached the spot and supervised the investigation.
Officials said all borders of the Kanpur division, comprising six districts, have been sealed.
A forensic team from Lucknow have been roped in and the special task force (STF) has been given the charge of the case.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has paid his tributes to the eight police personnel who died on duty and asked the director general of police (DGP) to take toughest of action against those who were responsible for the firing.
“Eight Police personnel died, seven were injured. They are being treated at Regency Hospital. Police from neighbouring districts Kannauj and Kanpur Dehat have also been called,” Kanpur ADG JN Singh said, adding that a combing operation is underway.
All the borders in Kanpur comprising six districts were sealed.
Dubey has over 52 cases registered against him, including a murder charge for the killing of Santosh Shukla, a former UP minister in the Rajnath Singh government, at Shivli police station in 2001.