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Before he was killed along with seven colleagues during a raid on Vikas Dubey's hideout, Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra had suggested that the then Kanpur SSP was "protecting" the then station officer of Chaubeypur who had links with the gangster, audio clips of his purported phone conversations show.
Three audio clips of Mishra's purported phone conversations -- one with then Superintendent of Police (Kanpur Rural) Brijesh Srivastava and two with Chaubeypur SO Vinay Tiwari -- have surfaced on social media.
After the killing of eight policemen during the July 2 raid in Bikru village, Tiwari was suspended and later arrested, while Kanpur Senior Superintendent of Police and Deputy DIG Anant Deo Tiwari was shunted out.
Asked about the audio clips, Kanpur SSP Preetinder Singh said the matter is being "looked into" and that it is too early to say anything about the clips and the allegations made therein.
Singh said that the commission headed by a former Supreme Court judge and the special investigation team headed by the Additional Chief Secretary are already inquiring into the case and they would check the veracity of the audio clips as well.
During his first conversation with SO Tiwari, DSP Mishra, who was posted as the Circle Officer (Bilhaur), was being apprised about a complaint filed by Rahul Tiwari, a resident of Jadepur-Ghassa, Chaubeypur. In the clip, Mishra asks Tiwari "whether or not the crime occurred and charges levelled in the complaints were true or not".
When Tiwari admitted "manhandling" of the complainant by Dubey, the deputy SP asked him to "take the complainant to police station, lodge his complaint and apprise the SP (Rural) about it".
In another clip, of his purported conversation with the SP (Rural), Mishra reports that SO Tiwari "is saying that I (Mishra) have to go, only then a raid will start and I have agreed to go to supervise the police raid".
Mishra further said that the SO touches the feet of gangster Dubey. "When he touches his feet, what else we can expect", Mishra says and adds, "Once I told him that if he will keep his relations with him then it might lead to 2-4 murders, but he said that only a criminal can give tips about other rewarded criminals."
"SO said that he (Vikas Dubey) got arrested a criminal carrying a cash reward of Rs one lakh. I asked him (Tiwari) to run the police station smoothly, otherwise there will be murders inside the police station," Mishra told Srivastava.
Mishra also alleged that then Deputy DIG/SSP Tiwari, referring him only by his surname, had been protecting the SO.
"SO had been extorting money of Rs 1.5 lakh per month and allowed gambling in his area and despite my warning, he did not stop it. I had to nab the gamblers with the help of police personnel of other police stations. After that I was asked by the then DIG/SSP to give a report against the SO," Mishra is heard saying in the clip of about five minutes.
"Tiwari took Rs 5 lakh from arrested gamblers on the pretext of protecting them from police action, gave it to the then DIG/SSP who dropped all inquiries against the SO," Mishra told Srivastava in the audio.
Mishra also said that the "SO must have informed him (Vikas Dubey)" and he would have fled before the raid began.
In the third audio Clip, Mishra was heard berating SO Tiwari over gambling in his jurisdiction.
Eight policemen, including Mishra, were killed in the ambush in Bikru village on July 2 night. Later, the police killed gangster Vikas Dubey and some of his aides in separate encounters.