Law-keepers have been walking a tightrope in this part of the Hindi heartland. With the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey, they have shown how they blindly follow political masters
In the badlands of Uttar Pradesh (UP), things only change to remain the same. In that iconic film, Omkara, made by Vishal Bhardwaj and located in the diabolical landscape of western UP where bahubalis (strongmen) call the shots, every character, with the caste prefix attached most often with their surnames and on their foreheads, fits into this eternally-predictable jigsaw puzzle. There is a revealing scene in this incredible gangster film of bitter realism. Langra Tyagi, obviously a Brahmin, played superbly by Saif Ali Khan with a pronounced limp, goes to a jail as a “visitor” to meet a buddy. The policeman at the “reception” is making a loud announcement. Among other instructions he is clearly stating that no arms, ammunition and so on will be allowed to be taken inside the prison. So Langra Tyagi walks up to him nonchalantly and declares for all to hear that he has arms and ammunition. The policeman looks up and jokingly dismisses him, saying: “Chal jhutte (Oh come on, you are a liar).”
In recent weeks, indeed quite apparently since July 3 this year, almost a similar script played out for the world to see. And it was more volatile than the pandemic, the lockdown, the quarantine, mass migration of workers especially in UP and Bihar, joblessness and the economy that’s awaiting some sort of resurrection. It had such a typically inevitable ending that even a C-Grade Bollywood script writer would blush in astonishment and embarrassment.
By now, the macabre story of the murder of eight policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, in UP and the “encounter” of the man who led the attacks on the cops has unfolded, with all its gory details in the media and social platforms. More than the detailing, which is unfolding and which is still wrapped in many hidden sleaze tales of the underground and the overground, mixing in a sinister synthesis with such lucidity, there are too many questions. All of these surround the hitherto not so popular figure of the protagonist: Vikas Dubey of village Bikaru in Kanpur Dehat, Chaubepur block.
A history-sheeter, gangster and criminal, with over 60 cases against him, including multiple cases of land-grabbing and murders, Dubey was known to be a typical bahubali. Pandering to the upper caste politicians at the local level with big ambitions, he not only wielded the gun as an insignia of his prowess but also convinced them about his invincibility in their grand design. It is slowly emerging that he had been used by politicians across the spectrum. It is also being openly said that he was bumped off brazenly and with a total lack of finesse in the darkness of the night so that he would not reveal all the shady stories of politicians and policemen up his sleeve.
However, uncanny questions remain, about his life and especially the manner in which he died. It is common knowledge that officers of the UP Police have a reasonably murky record in terms of the numerous “encounters” under the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, despite observations against the same by the highest court in the land. Vikas Dubey, shot dead at the age of 43 in a striped white T-shirt with a pronounced and happy potbelly, started his criminal life when he was young. His early gang was conceived in his youth, with muscle-flexing, land-grabbing, extortion and murder as his unique selling points. Not really a Robin Hood, or a do-gooder bandit, he was soon branded as one of the most wanted criminals in the countryside.
He liked to be called “Pandit”, proudly flaunting his Brahmin legacy. The first murder case apparently happened in 1990. Nothing happened to him in terms of the justice system as is the undeclared norm in UP in many cases. He thereby chose to become a lackey of a politician who shifted from the BJP to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Dubey, too, joined the BSP in 1995-96. Both he and his wife won local elections by hook or by crook.
Significantly, he was the main accused in the murder of BJP leader Santosh Shukla, who was then a Minister of State, no less, at the Shivli police station, again in Kanpur Dehat, in 2001. In a daredevil act, sending a signal to all across the police force and the political spectrum, he apparently chased the Minister inside the police station and shot him dead as a public spectacle. Two policemen also died in that incident. However, Dubey was not arrested.
He surrendered after some months, reportedly accompanied by politicians, even while the entire bureaucracy and police administration tacitly refused to proceed against him, according to the brother and relatives of the BJP politician he had murdered. Predictably, again, he was acquitted. Dubey was finally arrested in 2017, booked under the Gangsters Act and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. Two years later he was chargesheeted. However, his activities continued unabated.
As is well-known, for reasons best known to him, Dubey’s gang ambushed a police party looking for him on the night of July 3 in his village and killed them in cold blood. Eight cops were killed and several injured. Dubey was reportedly tipped off by his contacts in the police force that a raid was about to be conducted on him. The gangster and his men not only took the guns of the policemen but also reportedly inflicted severe wounds with an axe on their bodies. Why he participated in this elaborate bloodbath, only he knew; something, perhaps, the nation will never come to know now.
Since then, he was known to have travelled across four State borders, undetected, and ended up, as if going for a morning walk, at the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh (MP), on July 9. Unarmed, he surrendered, without an inch of anxiety written on his face, to the unarmed and untrained guards at the temple. He was reportedly identified when he repeatedly shouted his name for all to hear, and his identity was established through the use of the Truecaller app on the phone.
The MP Police handed him over to the UP Police, which then took him in a convoy to some unknown destination, probably Kanpur, followed by intrepid reporters in their vehicles. He was apparently made to sit with policemen, unarmed obviously, and handcuffed, in a Tata Safari. He showed no desire to escape and had willfully surrendered, obviously working on a bigger plot. There were speculations in the media and amid UP-watchers that he would be bumped off just like the rest of his close aides had been.
On July 10, as the night unfolded into another macabre drama, the SUV with Dubey inside, surrounded by policemen, allegedly turned turtle, on a road which did not seem to have any bumps or potholes. According to reports, the SUV, which had skid on a smooth tarmac, did not leave any tyre marks or wasn’t damaged. Besides, its doors were jammed. There are reports that it was not the same one which was carrying him initially. Reportedly, the vehicle which overturned was a Mahindra SUV while he had been travelling in a Tata Safari earlier.
Thereafter, the cops came out with a predictable version: The SUV overturned, Dubey tried to snatch a gun from a policeman and run. Like Langra Tyagi, Dubey walked with a limp; he simply could not run. Even then, the UP Police was forced to shoot him dead. One wonders why? Was he shot in the chest? If he was running, with a limp, how come he was not shot in the back? Why did he surrender in the first place if he really wanted to run? Why did he not hide and get holed up, with enough political patronage, till things cooled down? Why did he not surrender in a court with lawyers, in full public view, and instead chose to send a symbolic message by surrendering in a Hindu temple? What were the sleazy, sinister and shady secrets Dubey was hiding in his several decades of criminal life, so lucidly tangled within the web of UP politics?
Indeed, if Dubey was bumped off, which seems to be so at this moment, what was the hurry to enact this public spectacle so soon after his arrest and so shoddily at that? And why were the reporters following the convoy stopped again and again, and then finally barricaded?
In the badlands of UP, these questions make little sense. Indeed, those reporters who would be brave enough to ask these questions are clearly not following their beats. Law keepers have always been walking a tightrope in this part of the Hindi heartland. With the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey, the criminalisation of politics has again come a full circle. Or, should we say, that it has turned turtle?
(The writer is a senior journalist)
