Indian police kill top crime suspect in deaths of 8 officers

A top suspect in dozens of crimes, including the killings of eight police officers last week, was fatally shot on Friday in police custody while allegedly trying to flee, officials said.

“Vikas Dubey snatched a gun from officers after their vehicle overturned on a highway near the northern Indian city of Kanpur and tried to flee,” said police officer Mohit Aggarwal. He said Dubey died in an exchange of gunfire.

Dubey, in his 40s, had given himself up in the central town of Ujjain on Thursday after a week-long search.

He was being driven in a police convoy to Kanpur where the eight police officers were killed.

Amarnath Aggarwal, an opposition Congress party leader, accused police of killing Dubey. “Its a pre-planned murder. It was committed with the motive that Dubey did not reveal the names of people who provided patronage and protection to him.”

Dubey’s gang of criminals is accused of fatally ambushing officers who had come to arrest them.

They blocked the road with excavators and fired from rooftops, police said. Five officers were also wounded and the assailants fled before police reinforcements could reach the area.

Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 230 million, is one of the most impoverished states in India. It is also considered one of the most lawless with high incidents of armed robberies, kidnappings for ransom and crimes against women, according to the National Crime Record Bureau.

Dubey was allegedly involved in 60 cases of killings, robberies and kidnappings. Among them was the killing of local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Santosh Shukla in a police station in 2001. Two police also died in the attack.