SC seeks UP govt’s response on pleas for SIT probe into Vikas Dubey’s encounter killing

Hints at ordering a probe by a panel headed by a retired judge into encounter killings

 

New Delhi(Agencies):  The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to respond to petitions seeking a probe into the encounter killing of gangster Vikas Dubey near Kanpur last week.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde—which heard petitions seeking an independent probe into encounter killings of Dubey and his associates—asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to file its response by July 16 and posted the matter for further hearing on July 20.

The Bench indicated that it might set up a committee headed by a retired judge to inquire into it. It had done so in the December 2019 Hyderabad encounter case.

However, it said it was not inclined to monitor any probe.

On behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he would not take an adversarial stand.

There are several petitions filed on the issue, including the one by an Uttar Pradesh Police officer arrested for allegedly leaking information about a raid to nab gangster Vikas Dubey.

Inspector KK Sharma has moved the Supreme Court seeking protection after encounter killing of Dubey and his associates.

In a petition filed through his wife Vinita Sirohi, Sharma expressed apprehension that he might be eliminated through “illegal and unconstitutional means”.

Sharma and three other cops were suspended on July 5 for their alleged involvement in giving a tipoff to Dubey about the police raid on July 3.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed and killed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur on their way to arrest Dubey.

Dubey was killed last Friday in an encounter after a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur allegedly met with an accident and he tried to flee.

Questioning the police version about leaking information, Sharma, currently in jail, asserted he was directed by his in-charge Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer of the Chaubeypur police station, to remain at the police station.

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has also filed a plea seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) monitored probe into the killings of Dubey and his associates.

PUCL filed an application in a petition already filed by it in 2018 that questioned police encounters in Uttar Pradesh between January 2017 and March 2018.

Now it wants a probe into the encounter killing of Dubey and his associates Amar Dubey and Prabhat Mishra as also the criminal-political nexus in Uttar Pradesh.

The third petition is by advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay who moves top court hours before Dubey was killed in an encounter. He had sought a direction to UP Government to ensure the gangster’s safety as he apprehended cops might kill him.