Kanpur encounter: SO Kaushalendra Pratap Singh recounts chilling details of D-day

Station Officer (SO), Bithoor Police Station, Kaushalendra Pratap Singh, a part of 35-member team which was sent to arrest gangster Vikas Dubey last week, recounted the events of the day when an unprecedented ambush led to the killing of eight police personnel in Kanpur.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "On July 2, I received a call from SO Chaubeypur, Vinay Tiwari (suspended now) at around 12:00 am following which we went for the arrest. We parked our vehicles around 2-2.5 km away from the spot. While we were walking ahead, around 20 rounds were fired at us following which our force scattered, few of them who were without weapons tried to hide while the personnel with weapons took their position."

"I was sitting behind the wall with two other police personnel. I had a pistol but the other two didn't have any weapon. Our constable Ajay Senghar told us that he was shot in the stomach. One more police personnel was shot in the hand. People were firing from the terrace so we couldn't see them," he added.

He continued saying that a few people who were firing at the police were identified later when their pictures went viral.

"We somehow managed to move away from that spot. We had no plans for encounter...I didn't even know who was the person we went to arrest. If we had any idea, the situation would have been different. I took around 10 people with me from my police station, out of which four had weapons. So in total, including police personnel from other stations, we had around 15 weapons," said Singh.

The team which went to arrest Dubey consisted of almost 35 police personnel, he informed.

"When we went for the arrest, it wasn't dark. Lights were there which proved out to be a drawback for us as the people on the terrace identified the positions of police personnel. There was a power cut later. Vinay Tiwari was with us only but when they started firing, Tiwari was left behind. Maybe he took his position," said Singh.

"When I and my two constables were injured and we managed to escape the spot, we saw Tiwari on the way," he added.

Vikas Dubey was arrested by the police in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain on Thursday morning. He was on the run and had allegedly come to the city to offer prayers at a temple, where he was identified by a security guard.

He was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday after he "attempted to flee".

The gangster was the main accused in the encounter that took place in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him.

-ANI

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