Synopsis: Chief Justice S A Bobde’s bench said today that there were adequate protections to ensure the judicial panel’s fair inquiry into the encounter of Vikas Dubey in Kanpur.
Today, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging setting up a three-member judicial commission to probe the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey headed by former Apex Court judge, Justice B. S. Chauhan. The bench said that there were appropriate safeguards to ensure the judicial panel’s fair investigation into the encounter.
On 11th August, the bench also comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian had said that it would not allow anyone to cast aspersions on the basis of media reports on the retired apex court judge heading the panel.
The verdict came on a plea field by advocate Ghanshyam Upadhaya seeking re-constitution of the inquiry commission and substituting its members — Justice (retd) B S Chauhan, former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Uttar Pradesh DGP K L Gupta — with other former judges of the apex court and retired DGPs.
He had alleged that brother of Justice Chauhan is a legislator in Uttar Pradesh and his daughter is married to a Member of Parliament.
Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur district of Kanpur, as they were about to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on 3rd July.
The police had said that Dubey was killed in an incident on the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti district.
Previously, Upadhyay had also demanded Gupta’s ouster from the commission of inquiry for reportedly making comments prejudicial to the investigation. The Supreme Court, however, dismissed this petition too.
An inquiry committee was set up by the State of Uttar Pradesh and authorized by the Supreme Court to look into the alleged fake encounter that killed gangster Vikas Dubey earlier this year. The commission was led to deliver its findings on July 22 in two months’ time.
The order was passed on petitions demanding a investigation in gangster Vikas Dubey’s extrajudicial killing. Earlier, the Supreme Court had requested a draft notification from the State of Uttar Pradesh with a view to reconstituting the panel, investigating the murder of gangster Vikas Dubey.
The CJI-led Bench had ordered that a retired Supreme Court judge and a former high ranking police officer be included in the Committee, along with the already appointed retired High Court judge, so the investigation could be unbiased and comprehensive.
Hours before his death, Mumbai-based lawyer Ghanshyam Upadhyay had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking security for the gangster, apprehending his killing in a “false encounter”. The encounter had taken place even before the Supreme Court could list the petition.