Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The three-member judicial inquiry commission set up on the directives of the Supreme Court to probe into the encounter killing of gangster Vikas Dubey after the Bikhru massacre has given a clean chit to Kanpur Police. The panel said there is no doubt about the police version of the episode.
The report of the commission was tabled by the state parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna in the Assembly. In its report, the commission said there was no contradiction of police claims from either the public or media regarding the encounter killings of Dubey and his aides following the massacre of eight police personnel including a DySP in Bikhru village of Kanpur on the intervening night of July 2 and 3, last year, according to sources.
The commission, which took eight months to complete the investigation, had submitted an 824-page report to the state government on April 21. The commission said that even no evidence was filed to rebut the police claims regarding Dubey’s killing.
Dubey and his men ambushed the police party killing 8 cops on the spot. However, later it was established that the Chaubeypur police station in-charge and some other cops of the same police station were hand in gloves with Dubey and had informed him beforehand of the arrival of the police party.
The judicial commission, headed by Justice BS Chauhan, a retired judge of Supreme Court, also comprised of retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shashi Kant Agarwal and former DGP of Uttar Pradesh KL Gupta.
The commission in its report further said there was enough material on record to establish that Dubey and his gang had the patronage of the local police, revenue, and administrative officials.
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After the Bikhru massacre, Dubey was arrested by Ujjain police in front of the Mahakal temple and handed him over to Kanpur police. He was killed in an encounter when the 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 said the evidence and post-mortem reports supported the police version of the killing of Dubey and other members of his gang.
However, the slain gangster’s wife Richa Dubey had filed an affidavit calling the incident a fake encounter, but she did not appear before the commission. The commission said in its report that there was no suspicion or doubt about the police version of this incident and the magisterial inquiry report conducted by CMM (chief metropolitan magistrate) Kanpur had a similar finding.
The report observed that though Dubey’s name appeared on the list of top-10 criminals in the police circle, he was not on the list of top-10 criminals of the district. Rather, the family members of Dubey were elected to local bodies. Most of the family members were granted arms licenceS, passport Sand fair price shopS on the recommendations of the competent authorities, the report further stated.
Investigation in any case lodged against the members of the gang headed by Vikas Dubey was never impartial, the report said. There was a total failure of the intelligence unit in Kanpur in gathering information about the possession of sophisticated weapons by Vikas Dubey, the commission report added.
