The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested suspended Station House Officer of Chaubepur Vinay Tiwari, accused of informing gangster Vikas Dubey about last week’s Kanpur encounter in which eight personnel were killed, ANI reported. KK Sharma, a sub-inspector in the same police station, was also arrested.

Both Tiwari and Sharma were present when the incident took place on July 3, but escaped from the site. “As per evidence, it has been found that police personnel Vinay Tiwari and KK Sharma had informed Vikas Dubey about the raid beforehand,” Kanpur Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Prabhu said. “So, he was on alert and planned to attack police which resulted in the death of eight policemen.”

He added that the arrests were made after collecting a lot of evidence in the case. A police officer, who was among those killed in the encounter, had allegedly alerted the district police chief that Tiwari was sympathetic to Dubey and displaying “doubtful integrity” by not taking action against the criminal. The district police chief’s involvement in the case is still under investigation.

Earlier in the day, a close aide of Dubey was killed in an encounter with the police in Hamirpur district. The police also arrested another member of the gang in a separate encounter in Chaubepur area. Amar Dubey was among the 18 persons linked to the gangster on whom the police declared a bounty of Rs 25,000 each. The deceased was reportedly close to Dubey, who is still out of the police’s reach. The cash reward for Dubey’s arrest was also increased to Rs 5 lakh on Wednesday.

A deputy superintendent of police, three sub inspectors and four constables were shot dead while trying to arrest Dubey, who has 60 criminal cases against him. The encounter happened in Bikru village in Kanpur on the intervening night of July 2 and July 3. Four others were critically injured.

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