She said that during the pandemic-triggered lockdown, policemen would have lunch and dinner at their Bikru village residence and many of them even stayed overnight. "The police used him and then destroyed him. I have full faith in the Constitution and justice will prevail," she was quoted as having said.

 

In an interview to a local daily, Richa said that on the night of the Bikru incident in which eight policemen were ambushed and killed by Vikas and his gang, she received a call from her husband around 2 a.m. on July 3.

 

"He asked me to flee our Lucknow home immediately as several people had been killed in Bikru. I kept running till I found shelter at a friend's place. That was the last time, I spoke to him and after that I got updates from media reports," she said.

 

However, she refused to disclose where she had taken refuge.

 

Richa said that her husband was not as ruthless as he was being made out to be.

 

"He may have been a criminal, but was a caring husband and a father. He loved his two children. Every month, we received Rs 40,000 as expenses. My elder son, Shantanu, is studying medicine in Russia and my younger son, Akash, scored 90 per cent in his Class 12 exams.

 

"I do not know what happened in Bikru that night. My husband is dead but my hopes are still alive," she said.

 

Richa said that Vikas Dubey was a good friend of her brother Raju Nigam. "I met him in 1990 and it was my brother who got us married," she said.

 

She said that Vikas would resolve disputes in his village and people came to him with their problems. "His was the last word in Bikru," she stated.

 

Richa further said that due to his criminal profile, Dubey had decided to build a house in Lucknow in 2004, where the children would be away from local politics.

 

"He wanted them to study and lead a better life," she said.

 

Richa also spoke of her uneasy relationship with her mother-in-law, Sarla Devi, but said that Vikas Dubey would always honour his parent's wishes. "If anybody pleaded before my mother-in-law or father-in-law, Vikas would not act against them," she said.