Vikas Dubey killed in police ‘encounter’
OPPN DEMANDS SC-MONITORED PROBE
NEW DELHI: Within 24 hours of the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force (STF) arresting history-sheeter gangster Vikas Dubey, he was shot to death in custody on Friday morning in what the state police are calling an encounter on the highway to Kanpur. The police said that one of the cars in their convoy had flipped on its side a short while after they cleared the Bara Toll Plaza to enter Kanpur and Dubey had tried to flee after snatching the service pistol of an officer. They said Dubey was asked to surrender but started firing on the policemen, who then returned the fire, killing the gangster who had just a week ago ambushed a raiding party of the UP Police, killing eight of their team members. According to Dr RB Kamal, the principal of Kanpur’s LLR Hospital, “Vikas Dubey had three bullet injuries on the chest and one on his arm.”
The UP STF, in a statement, said that the driver of the vehicle had lost control when a herd of cows and buffaloes suddenly came in his way, which is what caused the accident. The police added that despite “all efforts made to apprehend Dubey alive”, the gangster started firing indiscriminately and hence they had to return the fire, during which he was killed. Two cops were also injured, with all of them stable and bullets having grazed two of them.
Head constable Shivendra Singh Sengar and constable Vimal Yadav of the STF were injured in the firing by Dubey, the statement added. Curiously, several journalists who were following the UP Police convoy on its way from Ujjain to Kanpur were stopped at least 2 km before the section of the highway where the encounter took place.
While the police are officially claiming that Dubey was able to escape because the car he was being taken in had met with an accident, visuals and photographs have emerged of the gangster being seated in a Tata Safari, while images from the encounter site showed that a Mahindra TUV 300 was the vehicle that had flipped in the accident. Senior police officials have disclosed that according to what they have been briefed, Dubey was in the same car throughout the journey. Interestingly, one of Dubey’s close aides, Prabhat Mishra, who was arrested a few days ago, was killed in a similar encounter with UP Police when the car they were transporting him in had broken down. Officials claimed that Mishra had snatched the weapon of a policeman while he was fixing the car and then tried to flee. So far, five of Dubey’s aides, including Mishra have been killed.
Dubey’s name shot onto the front pages of newspapers on July 4 when a day earlier he had, with the help of local police officials, arranged an ambush at his Kanpur’s Bikru village for a raiding party of the UP Police, thereby murdering eight of them in a bloodbath. While he fled from his Kanpur village after the murders, he evaded arrest for five days, during which time he crossed through at least three states and travelled 1,500 kms.
Soon after the encounter, one of Dubey’s aides was held and he revealed that a local cop had tipped the gangster off about the raiding party. In a scurry after the July 3 bloodbath, the STF of UP Police first demolished Dubey’s Bikru home and his vehicles as a manhunt was launched for him and his gang members. Significantly, it was later revealed that DIG Anant Dev, head of the STF, had failed to take action against Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer of Chaubeypur police station over the latter’s links to Dubey. While the UP Police had arrested Tiwari and a sub-inspector from the police station that is in charge of Bikru village for tipping him off about the raids; all 68 policemen posted at the station were transferred out and sent to the police lines.
It also came to light later that Bilhaur DSP Devendra Mishra, one of the policemen killed in the Bikru bloodbath, had written to Dev about Tiwari’s links to Dubey, following which no action was initiated.
Incidentally, while Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Friday spoke to journalists and said, “Law has taken its course. MP Police did its job, it arrested and handed him over to UP Police.”
However, with alleged connections of Dubey and his gang members now being unearthed, it is pertinent to note that the BJP politician was the party's election-in charge in Kanpur during the assembly elections of 2017.
The Indian National Congress demanded a Supreme Court judge-monitored probe into the Dubey encounter with senior leader Randeep Singh Surjewala saying, “Encounter of Vikas Dubey also raises a question of a serious nexus between organized crime, between those enjoying political power and between those who are sitting on the highest echelons of law and order machinery.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that the police-politiciancriminal nexus in UP must be unearthed whereas party President Rahul Gandhi said, “Silence is better than many answers, No one will know these answers now.” Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said, “In fact, the car did not overturn, this was a ploy to save the government from toppling if secrets would have come out.” Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also sought a judicial probe into the encounter and said that this would also go a long way in delivering justice for the killing of the eight UP policemen.
Demanding an Sc-monitored probe into the matter, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said, “There should be an unbiased probe under the supervision of the Supreme Court into the killing of policemen in Kanpur and the encounter of main accused Vikas Dubey while he was trying to flee when the police vehicle overturned.” Maharashtra's ruling party and BJP'S estranged NDA ally Shiv Sena, however, backed the UP Police over Vikas Dubey's encounter. The party has said that no questions should be raised on the police for killing a notorious criminal, who was a big threat to the law and order in the state.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said, “If Adityanath does not order immediate suspension of all police officers involved in the obviously fake encounter of Vikas Dubey, it would be clear that the ‘encounter' had his blessings. Would mean Adityanath had his own nexus with Dubey”.