Fan pages devoted to gangster Vikas Dubey have starteddisappearing at an alarming speed after the Kanpur police took cognizance ofthe same.
Of the multiple fan pages, eulogizing the gangster, barely tworemain on social media now.
According to Kanpur (rural) Superintendent of Police BrijeshKumar Srivastava, the police learnt about the Vikas Dubey pages when their investigationteams found them active.
"An analysis is underway. We have checked that thecontent is highly sensitive. Legal action will be taken. We will also send aletter to Facebook asking them to block these pages, but first we will completeour own investigation," he said.
Vikas Dubey hit theheadlines earlier this year when he was found responsible for the massacre ofeight policemen in an ambush in the Bikru village on July 3.
Dubey was killed a week later in a purported encounter inKanpur after he was arrested in Madhya Pradesh.
Some of the Facebook pages on Vikas Dubey were found toglorify automatic weapons, eulogize the gangster and even solicit contractkillings.
These groups had sensitive and objectionable posts. Thepages had names like 'Vikas Dubey Kanpur Wala' and 'Vikas Dubey amar rahe'.
Some pages like 'Vikas Dubey Fan Page', 'Brahmin ShiromaniPandit Vikas Dubey' and 'Vikas Dubey gangster' have done the disappearing acton social media.
The Kanpur police have asked its observation team and cybercell to collect more details and take action against those who have createdthese pages.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that the gangstershave found a strong presence on social media.
The slain dons are being kept 'alive' by their friends andsupporters who keep posting items from time to time to revive memories of thedons and connect with people.
Virendra Pratap Shahi, the don from Gorakhpur who is said tohave built the city into the crime capital of north India in the 70s and 80s,was shot dead in Lucknow in 1997.
His Facebook display photo screams 'Sher-e-Purvanchal' andcarries a photograph of a roaring lion.
Greetings on various festivals are extended to hissupporters on his behalf. Supporters, in turn, pay their respects to the slaindon on his death anniversary and keep reminding people that he was the original'Sher-e-Purvanchal'.
Twenty-three years after his death, his page has over 2,000likes and a similar number of followers.
Another slain don 'active' on Facebook is Shri PrakashShukla. One of the most dreaded gangsters in the history of Uttar Pradesh,Shukla's activities in the underworld had led to the creation of the SpecialTask Force in Uttar Pradesh in 1998.
The same year, the gangster was shot dead by the STF inGhaziabad. His Facebook page proudly calls him a 'don'.
Though the criminal was shot dead in 1998, his FB page keepshim 'alive' and claims that he even started a 'relationship in January 2015'and then got 'married in January 2015'. The significance of January 2015 is notyet known.
Munna Bajrangi, who was shot dead inside Baghpat jail in2018, also has a Facebook page but there are no posts on it. His profile claimsthat he is 'mafia don'.