A day after gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police, a team from the Juhu unit of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested two of Dubey’s accomplices from Kolshet Road, Thane on Saturday.
The two accused -- Arvind alias Guddan Ramvilas Trivedi (46) and Sushilkumar alias Sonu Suresh Tiwari (30) -- were wanted by the police for their alleged involved in the ambush and murder of eight policemen in UP, as well as in the 2001 murder of a state minister.
Police said that early on Saturday, they received a tip-off that Trivedi and Tiwari, who were on the run after killing eight policemen in Bikru Village of Kanpur, were seen in Mumbai and Thane. Acting on the information, a police team led by Police Inspector Daya Nayak rushed to Thane and laid a trap near Kolshet Road. In the wee hours of Saturday, the two suspects walked into the trap while they were looking for a hideout.
Nayak said that preliminary investigation confirmed the identities of Trivedi and his driver Tiwari. The former was also involved in the murder of state minister Santosh Shukla in 2001, who was killed inside Shivli police station in Kanpur by Dubey and his associates.
After the shootout in which eight policemen including Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra were killed, the arrested duo fled the state and were in search of a hideout to lay low. The UP government had announced a cash reward for the arrest of these accused men.
Vikram Deshmane, Deputy Commissioner of Police, ATS said, “We had received information that one of the accused was looking for a hideout in Thane. The accused were then arrested. The UP police will take the transit remand of the accused duo and take them to UP.”
According to police, Trivedi and Tiwari, along with other henchmen, had helped Dubey kill eight policemen on the night intervening July 2 and 3, when a police team had gone to arrest the gangster in Bikru village of Kanpur. They were on the run since the incident.
The UP police had booked Dubey, Trivedi and Tiwari, and other members of the gang, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder, attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery and criminal conspiracy charges. The accused fled the state after the shootout, and police had launched a country-wide search to nab the accused.
