A day after a Deputy SP and seven others were fatally ambushed by history-sheeter Vikas Dubey and his cronies at Bikru village of Chaubepur in Kanpur, the administration razed his palatial house to the ground in two hours on Saturday. Ironically, the same JCB machine that Dubey deployed to hinder police raid on Friday, was used to demolish his house. Dubey’s two luxury vehicles were also damaged beyond recognition.

During subsequent search, the police discovered an underground bunker used for storing arms and ammunition by the ganglord.

The house had four newly-built rooms and it was surrounded by a 12 ft high boundary wall topped by two feet barbed wire net.

Villagers told the officials at site that the house was built about eight years ago. The original house within the campus was now being used a shelter for caretakers. The campus had four entry gates and all gates were wide enough for four-wheeler to enter.

Besides, CCTV cameras were found inside and outside of the four gates to monitor entry and exit of visitors. Dubey lived in the newly-built four rooms about 80 metres away from the main gate. While one of the rooms was used by his father Ram Kumar Dubey, housemaid Rekha, her husband and two daughters lived in a room just behind it.

Prior to bulldozing the construction, the police evacuated his father, the maid and her family from the house and banned entry of people, including media.

The demolition drive lasted for about two hours during which the construction transformed into debris. In the process, Dube’s two luxury cars and two tractors were badly damaged. Heavy police forced continued to be deputed at Bikru village and some of the families chose to abandon the village fearing backlash by the police.

 Meanwhile, Station Officer (SO) of Chaubepur, Vinay Tiwari, was suspended for dereliction of duty and leaking inputs to ganglord Vikas Dube about the impending police raid. 

Earlier on Friday, sleuths of Special Task Force (STF) had detained Tiwari and quizzed him for several hours. His call detail records (CDR) were also recovered to figure out his links with the absconding Dube. After Tiwari’s suspension, Inspector Krishna Mohan Rai was made the SHO of Chaubepur.

Confirming this on Saturday, IG, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal said that if needed, an FIR would also be lodged against the SO. He said that if anybody was found hand in glove with the prime accused, he would be immediately terminated and arrested.

ADG Kanpur Zone Jai Narain Singh also said that Vinay Tiwari was being probed to ascertain his suspicious role in the matter.

The STF suspected that the information on the impending police raid was leaked by the SO to Dube. On the basis of call detail records, a sub-inspector, a constable and a homeguard posted at Chaubepur police station were also on the police radar and were quizzed by STF officers. Meanwhile, several surveillance teams were pressed into service to trace over 500 mobile phones in the area.

On Wednesday, Vinay Tiwari had visited Dube’s house at Bikru village along with Rahul Tewari of Kanpur, who alleged that Dube had tried to kill him after kidnapping him. At the house, Dube brutally beat up Rahul in the presence of the SO. When Vinay Tewari intervened, Dube snatched his mobile phone and abused him after which a heated exchange ensued.