How Vikas Dubey Ended Up At Temple: Questions After His Arrest

Notorious gangster Vikas Dubey's arrest this morning led to several questions including where he was hiding all this time and how he ended up at a temple in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain five days after the killing of eight cops in Uttar Pradesh.

Vikas Dubey arrived at the famous Mahakal temple this morning and was spotted when he was reportedly trying to enter through the back gate after buying prayer offerings from a shop.

When he emerged, he was confronted by security guards, who hauled him to the police after a fight. Eventually he shouted out, "Main Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpurwala (I am Vikas Dubey from Kanpur)".

The criminal had reportedly travelled 700 km by road from Faridabad in Haryana through Rajasthan's Kota to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in a car with a UP number plate.

"We had caught many of his associates and a few were killed. So definitely he was trying to save his life and on the run," said Mohit Aggarwal, Inspector General, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, when asked how he was caught in Ujjain, far from the places where he was being searched.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was among those who wondered how he was able to travel this far without being checked.

"After the brutal massacre of Kanpur, UP government failed to work with the alacrity they should have. The way in which the accused reached Ujjain despite an alert not just exposes false claims of security but also points to a nexus," Priyanka Gandhi tweeted.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Yogi Adityanath government in UP should clarify whether Vikas Dubey surrendered or was arrested.

"There is news that the main accused in the Kanpur case is in police custody. If this is true, the government should clarify whether it was a surrender or an arrest. Call records should be made public so that those who colluded with him are exposed," the former Chief Minister tweeted.

"We could not arrest Vikas Dubey and he surrendered in Ujjain. We could not arrest him even after such a huge incident and he kept travelling around. This should be investigated," tweeted Amitabh Thakur, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer posted in Uttar Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra asserted that Vikas Dubey was arrested, he did not surrender. "He entered Madhya Pradesh via Rajasthan's Kota in a car with two aides, Bittu and Suresh. He used a fake ID with the last name 'Paul'," he said.