They have also been charged with disposing of a semi-automatic weapon from his native Bikru village where Dubey and his men had killed eight policemen, including a DSP, on July 3 last year.

 

The arrests were made in Kanpur on Monday.

 

Inspector General STF Amitabh Yash said that a resident of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, who had purchased a semi-automatic 30 Springfield American rifle from the gang, has also been arrested.

 

The STF also recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including a semi-automatic 30 Springfield American rifle, an automatic carbine, a revolver, a single barrel gun and two country-made pistols, huge number of cartridges including of AK -47, 7.62, 30.06, 12, .38 and 315 bores, besides charger clips of 30.06 cartridge and an Apple phone belonging to Vikas, seven android phones belonging to his aides Amar Dubey and Prabhat Mishra, two four-wheelers including an Omni car, besides a PAN and Aadhaar card and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash.

 

"The arrested persons include Vishnu Kashyap, Aman Shukla, Ram Ji, Abhinav Tiwari, Sanjay Parihar and Shubham Pal, all natives of Kanpur Dehat, and Manish Yadav of Bhind district of MP. They were arrested when they were planning to dispose of the remaining arms and ammunition of the slain criminals," the IG said.

 

Vishnu Kashyap, a resident of Shivli in Kanpur Dehat and a childhood friend of slain criminal Prabhat Mishra, had played a major role in providing shelter and facilitating Vikas's escape.

 

"He had borrowed a Swift DZire car from his friend Chotu and used it to transport Vikas, his nephew Amar and co-villager Prabhat to his brother-in-law Ramji's house in Tulsi Nagar where they stayed in the basement. They had also carried with them several arms and ammunition," the IG added.

 

On July 3, Ramji took Amar Dubey to an orchard of one Sanjay Parihar in Kariyajhala village from Rasoolabad on his motorcycle.

 

"There Amar Dubey asked Puttu Mishra to arrange for a safe hideout following which he had arranged their stay at the pump house. Amar was later joined by his uncle Vikas and Prabhat Mishra. However, on finding the place unsafe, Vikas again asked Puttu Mishra to arrange for a safer hideout. Subsequently, one Shivam Pal of Mangalpur had arranged a room for Vikas, where he stayed for two days," the official said.

 

"Shivam had also made arrangements for the gangster's snacks, lunch and dinner, besides newspaper and TV for the latest update on Bikru massacre. After staying there for two days, one Shubham Pal had arranged an Omni car and dropped Vikas, Amar and Prabhat to Aurraiya and from where the three later escaped to Delhi," the IG said.

 

The STF team, on Monday, had received specific input about the meeting of criminals, involved in giving shelter and facilitating escape to Vikas and his aides, near Bhauti Panki Padav underpass, where they were to dispose of the remaining arms and ammunition of Vikas and his aides to some unidentified people.

 

"STF arrested them with arms and ammunition and a case under relevant sections has been registered against them," the IG said.

 

It may be recalled that eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in the Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they led a police team to arrest Vikas Dubey.

 

Dubey was killed in an encounter in the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape.

 

Before Dubey's encounter, five of his alleged associates were killed in separate encounters with police.