Kanpur ambush: Slain gangster Vikas Dubey's close aide, accomplice arrested
Kanpur: After being detained for 15 days, slain gangster Vikas Dubey's close aide Jai Bajpai and one of his accomplices were arrested on Monday morning, police said.
The arrests were made on charges of criminal conspiracy and helping Dubey in his nefarious design by providing him cash and cartridges hours before the Bikru village ambush, in which eight police personnel were killed and seven others, including a civilian, left seriously injured, the police said in a statement issued here.
A police probe revealed that Dubey had made a phone call to Bajpai on July 1. The next day, along with his aide Prashant Shukla alias Doublu, a resident of Kohna, Bajpai went to Bikru to hand over Rs 2 lakh in cash and 25 cartridges of .32 bore revolvers to Dubey, the statement said.
Dubey had briefed Bajpai about his plan to launch an attack on the police party that had gone to the village to arrest him. He had also asked Bajpai to arrange for at least three sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for him and his gang members.
Accordingly, Bajpai took three SUVs to pick up Dubey and his men and take them to safer places, but failed to do so due to intensive police patrolling, the statement said.
On July 4, Bajpai left his vehicle in the Kakadev area and went underground, a police official said.
Soon after seizing the three vehicles, police raided the possible hideouts of Bajpai and nabbed him within hours, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.
Subsequently, he was handed over to the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police and taken to its headquarters in Lucknow, where he was kept in detention for 15 days, the official said.
Bajpai was handed over to the Nazirabad police on Sunday and subsequently let off, another official said, adding that he was arrested again following frequent tweets and posts on social media platforms about his release.
A police communique confirmed that Bajpai and Shukla were booked under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 395 (Punishment for dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving property stolen in the commission of a dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment (CLA) Act read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy), IPC.
A separate FIR under sections 29 and 30 of the Arms Act has also been registered against Bajpai for providing cartridges to Dubey illegally, the police statement said.
Dubey, the prime accused in the killing of the eight policemen in Kanpur's Bikru village on July 3, was killed in a police encounter on July 10.
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AI, IndiGo, SpiceJet seek ATF price relief; say airline industry on verge of 'stopping operations'
Mumbai (PTI): Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have told the government that the country's airline industry is under extreme stress and on the verge of "stopping operations", as they sought revision in ATF pricing and financial support.
The West Asia turmoil has pushed up oil prices, and airspace restrictions have increased airlines' operating costs, especially on long-haul routes. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) accounts for around 40 per cent of a carrier's operational expenses.
Against this backdrop, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has written to the civil aviation ministry, seeking steps to extend the same fuel pricing mechanism uniformly across both domestic and international operations as was done in the past with the establishment of the crack band.
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With an unprecedented rise in jet fuel prices and exorbitant crack/differential between crude and ATF, the federation said the operation of airlines is being challenged in totality.
"... any ad hoc pricing (domestic vs international) and/or irrational increase in the price of ATF will result in unsurmountable losses for airlines and will lead to grounding of aircraft, resulting in cancellation of flights," the federation, which represents Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, said.
"In order to survive, sustain and continue operation, we request your urgent intervention for immediate and meaningful financial support to tide over the current situation," it said in a letter on April 26.
Also, the airlines have sought temporary deferment of excise duty on ATF, which is at 11 per cent.
"With the abnormal increase in ATF prices from the pre-crisis period, adding rupee depreciation to the increased prices, the 11 per cent excise duty also increases manifold for the airlines and adds to the ATF price as a big impact on airlines," they said.
Last month, the government limited the hike in ATF price to Rs 15 per litre for domestic operations, but for international operations, the price rose by Rs 73 per litre.
The airlines said the situation has practically made international operations, along with domestic operations, completely unviable and resulted in significant losses for the aviation sector in April.
Seeking urgent intervention on the current ATF ad hoc pricing, FIA said the current situation is creating a severe imbalance in domestic and international operations and rendering airline networks unviable and unsustainable.
"The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and is on the verge of closing down or of stopping its operations."
The federation has pitched for a transparent pricing framework under the crack band mechanism (USD 12–22/BBL) that was implemented in October 2022, saying there was a fair and reasonable margin for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
According to FIA, the country's largest aviation hub Delhi has the second-highest value-added tax (VAT) of 25 per cent on jet fuel, while the highest rate is 29 per cent levied in Tamil Nadu.
"The other major aviation cities, viz. Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kolkata range between 16 per cent and 20 per cent. These 6 cities cover more than 50 per cent of airlines' operations within India," the federation said.
