The enquiry commission chaired by retired Supreme Court justice BS Chauhan has concluded that the July 2019 police encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey outside Kanpur was above board, a senior home department official aware of the developments, said on Wednesday. The commission could not find any evidence to the contrary, he added.
One of the members of the enquiry commission said that the enquiry report was submitted to Uttar Pradesh’s home department and the Supreme Court on Monday after distilling the facts of the case for around eight-nine months since the enquiry commission was set-up. He refused to get into the details of the findings.
A UP home department official confirmed that the commission found no evidence against the state police. He added that the commission noted in the report that no one from the public, media or Dubey’s family came forward to present any proof against the police or to challenge their claim. He said the commission probed the matter nearly for around nine months before submitting its report.
The Uttar Pradesh police had claimed that it shot down notorious gangster Vikas Dubey in a genuine encounter after he tried to escape from police custody during the transit following his arrest in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain. Dubey and his gang members had earlier killed eight policemen including deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Devendra Mishra in Kanpur’s Bikru village on the intervening night of July 2 and 3, 2020.
The incident led to an uproar over the law and order situation in the state and allegations that Dubey was under political patronage and his arrest could spill the beans on the alleged deep nexus between criminals, politicians and the police.
{{/usCountry}}The incident led to an uproar over the law and order situation in the state and allegations that Dubey was under political patronage and his arrest could spill the beans on the alleged deep nexus between criminals, politicians and the police.
{{/usCountry}}UP police formed several teams to catch Dubey, who was finally arrested outside the famous Mahakal temple in Ujjain on July 10 last year. He was gunned down while being brought back to Kanpur by UP police. The police claimed that Dubey tried to escape from police custody after snatching a pistol from one of the police personnel, when a SUV carrying him met an accident and flipped on the outskirts of Kanpur. Dubey’s five associates were also killed by UP police in encounters between July 3 and 10, 2020.
It led to widespread allegations that the encounters were staged, following which, the three-member enquiry commission, comprising justice BS Chauhan, retired Allahabad high court judge SK Agarwal and retired UP director general of police (DGP) KL Gupta, was formed in the last week of July 2020.