A caller had got power authorities to switch off electricity to a Rural Kanpur village shortly before eight policemen were killed there during a raid to catch a gangster, officers said, bolstering suspicions that police “moles” had tipped off the criminals.

Police and electricity department sources said someone had called the local Shivali power sub-station after police teams had left to arrest Vikas Dubey, and asked that supply be disconnected to Bikru village to allow electrical line repairs. No such repairs were actually on, they added.

It has been already reported that when the 18 policemen arrived around 1.30am on Friday, they found their way blocked by an earthmover parked 50 metres from Vikas’s home, suggesting someone within the police had alerted the gangster.

As the cops got off their jeeps, they came under fire from the terraces of Vikas’s and other houses where the gang members had positioned themselves with what officers said were “AK series” rifles. Some gang members were lying in ambush on both sides of the road.

Former director-general of police Vikram Singh on Saturday criticised the police for poor preparedness and endorsed the theory that the raiding team had been betrayed.

“Certain things are clear: Vikas had confirmed information about the raid. Someone in the police department must have alerted him,” he said.

“The department’s intelligence system failed. The police should have activated its intelligence before the raid to ascertain the situation in the village. Why were the policemen not wearing bullet-proof jackets? Why did they not seek the support of the special task force, which is supposed to assist such operations?”

Police sources had on Friday said the cops carried “old” Insas rifles and revolvers that the government had been promising to replace since last year.

Villagers blamed

State police chief H.C. Awasthi, however, pointed a finger at Bikru residents after reports said several of the policemen had hidden in nearby houses after realising they had been tricked and ambushed but were dragged out and shot dead.

Others lay injured in the open and were rounded up and shot in cold blood, sources said.

“The police are for the people, but nobody came forward to save the policemen in the village. It’s a bad sign,” the DGP said in Kanpur.

He too appeared to back the “betrayal” theory, saying: “A conspiracy was hatched to ambush the police. We need to think where we are heading to. We are investigating how the criminals got information about the impending raid.”

While some of the policemen ran into nearby houses, most of the others got injured as they hid behind trees and tried to fire back.

Sources said Mahesh Yadav, station house officer of Shivrajpur, had called a police inspector at his station, 10km away, while hiding in the bathroom of a village house.

“There’s little possibility of survival. Send more forces immediately,” Yadav was quoted as saying.

The villagers said Yadav was dragged out of the bathroom, pressed against the boundary wall of Vikas’s home, and shot dead.

Deputy superintendent of police Devendra Mishra — the Bilhaur circle officer and the team leader — too was dragged out of a nearby house and killed.

Yadav’s call had led a small police team to quickly reach the village but the darkness and the earthmover prevented them doing anything except helplessly listen to the sound of firing, police sources said.

The dead included a DSP, two inspectors, a sub-inspector and four constables. Seven policemen were injured and three escaped unhurt.

One of the three, Chaubepur station officer Vinay Tiwari, was suspended on Saturday. He had allegedly hidden behind the earthmover and then run away.

According to the post-mortem reports, slain constable Sultan Singh took two bullets while the other seven dead had 8 to 10 bullet wounds each. DSP Mishra had taken one bullet each in the face and skull and the rest in his hands, legs, stomach and chest.

“Vikas had about a dozen CCTVs installed at the gates of his house, and many others on the 30-foot-high boundary walls and in the huge courtyard. But they were all found disconnected, apparently because the criminals didn’t want to leave any direct evidence,” a police officer in Lucknow said.

The villagers said Vikas used to call himself Vikas Pandit and boasted the police would never be able to enter the village. “Only the army can enter Pandit’s village,” he would say.

Vikas, 45, and his 10 associates are still at large although the police shot dead two of his relatives in an “encounter” on Friday that villagers said had been a “staged” one. Several of Vikas’s family members in Kanpur city and Lucknow have been detained.

Vikas faces 52 criminal cases including some relating to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion, and is known for helping various political parties intimidate voters, police sources said.

He and his wife have held various elected panchayat posts. Vikas is out on bail after being handed a life term for murder.