Probe report on Vikas Dubey’s encounter giving clean chit to police tabled in UP Assembly

Lucknow, August 20

A three-member commission probing the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey has given a clean chit to police, stating their version of events about his death was supported by evidence.

The commission said the Kanpur ambush in which eight cops were killed occurred because of "poor planning" by the police as they did not assess the situation correctly and there was "total failure" of Kanpur local intelligence.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna tabled the report in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday.

"The evidence adduced in the (Dubey encounter) 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.

"Nobody came forward from the public and media to controvert the police version and no evidence is filed in rebuttal. Richa Dubey, wife of Vikas, filed an affidavit calling the incident a fake encounter but she did not appear before the commission," it said, adding that in such eventuality, no suspicion or doubt arises about the police's version.

A magisterial inquiry conducted by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Kanpur Nagar, has a similar finding.

Eight police personnel, including deputy superintendent of police, were killed during a raid on Dubey's house at Bikru village in Kanpur district on the night of July 2-3, 2020.

Later, Dubey was killed in an encounter when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from custody, the police had said.

The commission comprised Justice BS Chauhan (retd), Justice SK Agarwal (retd) and former UP director general of police KL Gupta. It had submitted an 824-page report to the state government on April 21.

The commission said there is "sufficient material on record" to show that Dubey and his gang were patronised by the local police, revenue and administrative officials.

"He (Vikas) and his associates had been in touch with such officials, and the officers were also communicating with them. If any person lodged any complaint against Vikas or his associates, the complainant was humiliated by the police. Even if higher authorities gave directions to lodge a complaint, the local police dictated the terms," it said.

Though his name appeared in the list of top 10 criminals in the circle, he did not feature among top 10 criminals of the district, it said, adding that the members of his gang were included in a peace committee to resolve communal disputes.

"His wife was elected as a Zila Panchayat member and his brother's wife was elected as Bikru village's pradhan. They were both living in Lucknow. If any person of the area wanted help from them, he would contact Dubey and he would resolve their problem. The elected people never came into the picture," the report said.

Most of his family members had arms licences, and recommendations for them had been made by competent authorities by concealing material facts of their involvement in criminal cases. Their position was the same when it came to issuance of passports in their favour and/or grant of fair price shop licences, the commission noted. PTI