After the dramatic arrest of notorious gangster Vikas Dubey, accused of killing eight policemen in Kanpur, from the Mahakal temple in Ujjain early on Thursday morning, his mother Sarala Devi said the government is free to decide her son's fate.
She told reporters that she learnt about the arrest of her son from TV channels. "Vikas used to visit the Mahakal temple of Ujjain every year to offer prayers. The government will do whatever it thinks is appropriate. WE cannot say anything much."
She said it is the Lord Shiva who saved his life.
Sarala Devi said she got the information about his arrest from TV news. "Now the government must do what it deems fit. The government is very powerful. I do not know what to say," she said.
ADG Law and Order Prashant Kumar said that the matter is being investigated. The UP police has left for Madhya Pradesh to take the custody of Vikas Dubey. The search for other culprits in this case is also on. We will not rest until all the culprits are arrested.
An eerie silence sits heavy on the Bikru village, hours after the news of the arrest of gangster Vikas Dubey in Ujjain and the death of his accomplice Prabhat Mishra in Kanpur earlier on Thursday, seeped in.
A group of policemen sat around the demolished house of Vikas Dubey and Prabhat Mishra's house, a short distance away, wore a barren look. His grandmother sat on a parapet and was inconsolable.
As media persons trooped in, villagers began shutting their doors.
Supporters of Dubey -- and there are many of them in Bikru village -- refused to comment on his arrest. Some claimed that they were unaware of the development while others just slipped away.
Those who were opposed to the Dubey camp were too frightened to speak.
The Chaubeypur police station that has been at the centre of controversy over the role of police in the encounter that led to the death of eight policemen on July 3, also wears a deserted look.
The constables sitting idly around also refuse to comment. The entire Chaubeypur police station was sent to lines on Tuesday after a number of police personnel were found to be in cahoots with the gangster. Former Chaubeypur station officer Vinay Tiwari and inspector K.K. Sharma were first suspended and then arrested on Wednesday.
When prodded, one of the newly posted constables said, "I do not know the sequence of events. I have been posted here on Wednesday."
Meanwhile Kamlakant Mishra, brother of slain circle officer Devendra Mishra, alleged that the arrest of Vikas Dubey was a planned strategy to save the gangster.
"How could he cover a distance of about 800 kilometres that takes 12 hours without any support to reach the Mahakaal temple? It is now clear that there are some more people involved in the conspiracy that led to the encounter in which eight policemen were killed.
"It is on the advice of these people that Dubey has surrendered. He has been saved from the clutches of death," he said.
