Free To Vote, But Not Free Of Fear: Residents Of Gangster Vikas Dubey's Village

Three years and 11 months have passed, but uncertainty and fear still loom large over late gangster Vikas Dubey's village.

"Azad hain magar bekhauf nahin (we are free but an unknown fear still lurks)," says Jitendra Pandey (name changed on request).

Bikru, a sleepy hamlet in Kanpur suddenly hit national headlines in 2020, when eight police personnel were shot dead in the wee hours of July 3 by gangster Vikas Dubey and his men.

The massacre led to outrage and within a week, six of the accused, including Vikas Dubey, were killed in police encounters and 23 have been convicted since. Many others are languishing in jail.

As one enters the village, the palatial house of Vikas Dubey, now half razed, stands testimony to his reign.

An elderly villager who refuses to be named, said, "The incident haunts every house till today. From every house, there is someone who is in jail or has been killed or has fled - even those not related or linked to Dubey.

"The police come here every now and then to make enquiries and people are apprehensive. There are also some members of his gang who are active and we are afraid of them too."

With elections around the corner - Kanpur goes to polls on May 13 in the fourth phase - the only difference in Bikru this time is that people are free to choose their own political party and candidate now.

"Earlier, we had to vote for the party whose flag was hoisted on Vikas Dubey's house. No one campaigned here and the village voted as per Dubey's wishes. This time, we can vote wherever we want but there have been very few visits by candidates here," said the elderly villager.

Children playing around in the village have also become wary of visitors and strangers. They run away if you call out to them.

A five-year-old boy, when asked about Vikas Dubey, simply points to his semi-demolished house and walks away.

A distant relative of Vikas Dubey, who is living incognito in Lucknow, said, "You say Bikru is free but we are all living in fear. The police come to haunt us even though it is almost four years since the massacre. We have a tough time proving our innocence. All we want is that the guilty should be punished and the innocent should not be harassed."

Khushi Dubey, who had been married for three days when the massacre took place and then spent three years in jail because her husband, Amar Dubey (later killed in an encounter) was an accomplice of Dubey, refuses to talk about her 'freedom'.

"I have nothing to say. Please spare me and leave me to my fate," is all she says on phone.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)