Eight Uttar Pradesh policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, were killed after they were fired upon by criminals when a police team had gone to raid an area in search of a history-sheeter Vikas Dubey. The raid was carried out at around 1 am on the intervening night of July 2-3 in Bithoor's Dikru village in Chaubepur police station area in Kanpur.

Following this, photograph of a man with Uttar Pardesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was shared by Jan Adhikar Party leader Rajesh Ranjan, popularly known as Pappu Yadav claiming that the man is gangster Vikas Dubey whose attempted arrest in Kanpur led to the death police officials.

Ranjan shared the image on Facebook as well as on Twitter suggesting that the man who is greeting UP's CM is the gangster Vikas Dubey.

India TV anchor Sushant Sinha also shared another photo of the man saying “When BJP spoke of Vikas, were they talking about Vikas Dubey or JP Nadda? Will they be able to give any clarification on this picture to the families of the martyred policemen?” This post was later deleted. 

A congress member, Yogesh Shukla, who is as an executive member of the Congress party as per his bio, claimed that the man who killed UP cops is a BJP leader. 

However, the man seen in these pictures is a local BJP leader from Kanpur who shares his name with the notorious gangster Vikas Dubey.

The victimized politician took to social media to call out the false claim and released a video statement in which he said, “I am Pandit Vikas Dubey, area chairman of BJP Kanpur-Bundelkhand region. I am currently the area chief of BJYM. A few miscreants on Facebook and Twitter are linking my photos and name with criminal Vikas Dubey. I am going to file a complaint against these people.”

You can watch the video statement here:

In conclusion, photographs of BJP leader Vikas Dubey are being shared with a false claim that he is the gangster Vikas Dubey who is allegedly responsible for killing eight policemen in UP’s Kanpur.

Gangster Vikas Dubey, a history-sheeter, has been arrested several times but escaped conviction. According to the police, Vikas Dubey and his men were already aware of the police raid and were on high alert. The criminals managed to flee from the spot after killing the police personnel. The deceased cops of Kanpur have been identified as DSP Devendra Kumar Mishra, SO Mahesh Yadav, Chowki Incharge Anup Kumar, Sub-Inspector Nebulal, Constables Sultan Singh, Rahul, Jitendra, and Bablu.