The Apex Court may appoint a panel, to be headed by a retired Judge, to probe Kanpur Police’s killing of UP gangster Vikas Dubey & his aides last week, as well as his massacre of 8 cops a few days earlier.
Responding to Public Interest Litigation’s asking for a Court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into both incidents, the court gave the UP Govt till Thursday to tell the Court “what kind of committee” it wanted.
The case will be taken up next on Monday, July 20.
“We will do something (like) what we did in the Telangana case. Tell us what kind of committee you want,” CJI SA Bobde said, referring to the encounter killing of 4 men accused of the rape & murder of a 27-year-old woman.
Telangana Police said the 4, who were in custody, attempted to escape by attacked armed cops with sticks & stones before snatching their weapons, leaving them with no option but to shoot them dead.
Read also : Vikas Dubey Encounter: HC Dismisses Petition For Setting Up Of Judicial Commission
Shortly after the Supreme Court constituted a panel headed by Ex-SC Judge Justice VS Sirpurkar to probe the matter. The panel has yet to submit its report because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Yogi Adityanath government, asked for more time to formulate the state’s reply.
On Tuesday, he said that “Please give me time. We have taken cognisance of the matter (but) too many facts are in the public domain. Let me place our facts from the UP Govt before the court”.
Read also : Supreme Court Directs Telcos To Maintain Data Seized In Criminal Cases
Vikas Dubey, who was the main accused in a brutal attack that left eight cops dead & seven others injured, was shot dead Friday as he tried to escape police custody following a car accident.
The police said Dubey, who was being transported to Kanpur after his arrest in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, tried to escape after the vehicle he was in met with an accident.
In a statement that had echoes of the Telangana encounter, the cops said Dubey snatched a gun from a cop. Attempts were made to get him to surrender but he fired at the cops, forcing them to retaliate.
Read also : Rs 50,000 Spectacles Allowance For High Court Judges, Spouses
However, questions have emerged over the police’s version of events that led to Dubey’s death. Videos & witness accounts have underlined the questions that, so far, have no answers from the police.
The State Govt has already appointed an independent one-member commission to probe the incident; it will consist of a retired judge & must submit a report within two months.
One of the PILs heard by the SC today had been filed by Ghanshyam Upadhyay, a Mumbai-based lawyer, hours before Vikas Dubey died in the encounter.
Read also : Paatal Lok Season 2 Renewed? Anushka Sharma, Amazon Receive Court Notice
The PIL sought a court-monitored probe into the killing of five of the gangster’s associates. Presciently, it had also sought protection for Dubey, fearing that he might be killed in an encounter.
The second, filed by Anoop Prakash Awasthi, wants the top court to direct & oversee a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) or NIA (National Investigation Agency) probe into the nexus between cops & criminals that led to the deaths of the eight cops.
Ongoing inquiries into the bloodbath at Bikru village near Kanpur have suggested that several cops were part of Dubey’s “deep-rooted” network.
Read also :PIL In HC Seeks To Declare Hindi As Official Language Of Union Territory
The officer in-charge of the Chaubeypur Police Station, which has jurisdiction over the village, was arrested last week. A sub inspector from the same station was also arrested. In addition, four more cops from the station have been suspended and at least 30 others are being investigated.
A 3-Judge Bench of the Apex Court, consisting of the CJI & Justices R Subhash Reddy & AS Bopanna will hear the petitions.
Source Link
