On Thursday morning, gangster Vikas Dubey's accomplice Prabhat Mishra alias Kartikeya was shot dead by the police after he snatched the pistol of an inspector and opened fire at the Special Task Force (STF) team. He had been arrested in Faridabad on Wednesday by a team of the STF and was being brought to Kanpur on transit remand.
"Our vehicle was in the Panki area in Kanpur when it developed a snag. As the vehicle was being repaired, Prabhat Mishra tried to snatch the pistol of an inspector and opened fire at the STF team. He was shot dead in retaliatory firing," said an STF official. "Several policemen injured in incident," said ADG Kanpur.
Meanwhile, Twitter users called the story "fictional and inspired from Bollywood". Tehseen Poonawalla said, "This fictional story makes NO SENSE @Uppolice. For starters , why was Prabhat Mishra's hands not tied with ropes? Why did @Uppolice not anticipate the worst?(that's part of the SOPs). Why was the pistol not attached via a rope to the uniform &locked? Why did u take an old van?"
"Pathetic story! The whole system, from top to bottom, is intellectually so bankrupt that they cannot tell even a lie convincingly. By the way, orders are that cops must secure their weapons by lanyards to prevent snatching. Moreover, dangerous criminals shud hve bn handcuffed," wrote Retd IPS officer N. C. Asthana.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
Meanwhile, Vikas Dubey was arrested in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain on Thursday. It is learned that Dubey had come to Ujjain to offer prayers at Mahakaal Temple. He was identified by the security guards at the temple, who informed the police. He will now be handed over to the Uttar Pradesh Police, said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Dubey is the main accused in the encounter that took place in Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants allegedly opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him. Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.
