An earthmover was used to carry out a search operation in slain history-sheeter Vikas Dubey’s house in Bikru village of Kanpur as the building had become “insecure” in the process of excavating arms and weapons from its walls, the Uttar Pradesh government has said.
Dubey’s house was demolished by the Kanpur administration a day after the ambush in which eight policemen were shot dead by him and his associates.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the State government has justified the use of the earthmover in the recovery process due to safety reasons.
Upon receiving inputs about “deadly weapons” being kept inside “hollow chambers” inside the roofs and ceiling of the house, the police team raided Dubey’s house on July 4. The police found a large number of weapons, cartridges, bombs and explosives which had been embedded inside the walls, floors, and gaps in the ceiling plastered with light mud, the government said.
In the process of excavating the weapons and explosives from hollow walls of the house, the load bearing capacity of walls reduced, the government further said. The building became insecure for further recovery, it stated.
“Hence JCB machine (earthmover) was used for further recovery. In the process of recovery, some part of building collapsed,” said the State.
When the administration started demolishing the house and crushing vehicles parked in the compound, questions were raised as the police and administration did not offer any immediate explanation or cite the authority under which it was done.
Mohit Agarwal, IG Range Kanpur, had said then that the priority of the police was to wipe out Dubey’s gang and “seize” under the Gangsters Act all the properties he had “illegally” acquired.
Mr. Agarwal had also said that villagers alleged that Dubey had grabbed their land to build his house from where he carried out criminal activities like providing shelter to criminals and storing weapons.
Six illegal country-made pistols, 15 bombs, 25 cartridges and bomb-making material were recovered from the house during a search, said police.
In its affidavit, the U.P. government has also said that before getting killed on July 10 while trying to allegedly flee from custody, Dubey had fired nine bullets at the police team. The U.P. STF team shot six rounds at Dubey, of which three hit him, the government added.
