Vikas Dubey Encounter- "No Suspicion/Doubt About Police Version": Judicial Commission Gives Clean Chit To UP Police

A three-member commission approved by the Supreme Court to probe into the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey has given a clean chit to Uttar Pradesh police, stating that no suspicion or doubt arises about the police version of the encounter.

The report of the probe panel led by its Chairman, Dr. Justice B S Chauhan was tabled before the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly on Thursday. Retired Allahabad High Cort judge, Justice Shashi Kant Agarwal and former UP Director General of Police, K. L. Gupta are also its members.

"The evidence adduced in the case supports police's version of the incident. The injuries suffered by policemen could not be self-inflicted or fabricated. Dr RS Mishra, who was on the panel of doctors, conducted the post-mortem and clarified that the injuries found on his person (Dubey) could be caused as per the version of police," the report said.

"Vikas Dubey and his gang had been patronized by the local police"

Importantly, the Commission, in its report stated that it had found sufficient material on record to show that Vikas Dubey and his gang had been patronized by the local police, revenue, and administrative officials.

"In view of services and other illegal gains, the police and revenue officers had patronized him and his gang. If any person lodged any complaint against Vikas Dubey or his associates, the complainant was always humiliated by the police. Even if the higher authorities were directed to lodge the complaint, the local police dictated the terms," the report states.

The Report further states that in even cases that were lodged against him, the investigation in those cases was never impartial and that sections relating to serious offences were dropped before the filing of the charge sheet.

Importantly, the Report also concluded that during the trial, most of the witnesses used to turn hostile and that Vikas Dubey and his associates got bail orders from the courts easily and quickly as there had been no serious opposition by the State authorities/Government Advocates.

"State authorities never considered it appropriate to engage a special counsel for his prosecution. The state never moved any application for cancellation of bail or approached the superior court for cancellation of any of the bail orders," adds the report.

Dubey was killed in an encounter in 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 area, the police had said. Prior to Dubey's encounter, five of his alleged associates were killed in separate encounters.

Regarding the said incident, the Report of the commission observed this:

"There was a total failure of an intelligence unit in Kanpur in collecting the information about the criminal activities and possession of sophisticated weapons (legal and illegal) by Vikas Dubey and his gang. No proper caution was taken in preparation for conducting the raid, as 38/40 police personnel reached Village Bikru and none of them was wearing bullet proof jacket"

"The gruesome incident occurred because of the poor planning by the police as it did not assess the situation correctly. In fact, it did never expect that Vikas Dubey would retaliate or would be ready to retaliate with sophisticated weapons and his associates would take the positions on better locations, i.e. on the roofs of the houses. They were unaware of the fact that some police officials of PS Chaubeypur had already informed Vikas Dubey about the impending raid," the report further adds.

Against this backdrop, the Commission has recommended action against those erring public servant officials who allegedly colluded with Dubey and thereby caused loss of records, particularly the record of cases relating to Vikas Dubey.

Facts leading to the encounter

The Commission noted that just before the accident, it started raining and the distance between the vehicle carrying Vikas Dubey and the other two vehicles increased and suddenly a herd of cows and buffaloes started crossing the road.

The driver of the speeding vehicle carrying Vikas Dubey tried to avoid the accident and applied brakes to stop the vehicle but it skidded and turned over to the left after hitting the cemented divider at about 06.35 am, notes the report.

Thereafter, the report adds, Dubey, taking advantage of the situation, snatched the revolver of Ramakant Pachauri and came out by opening the door fitted in the back of the said vehicle and he was chased by the police and that is when he started firing from the looted pistol.

Lastly, the report concludes that when he did not stop firing and did not heed to surrender and also injured two policemen the police, in self-defense, fired at him and fell to the ground on being injured, after which, he was rushed to district hospital for treatment where he was declared brought dead.

It was on July 22, 2020 that the SC constituted the committee and appointed former SC judge Justice B S Chauhan to lead it, acting on a writ petition.