Inquiry commission gives clean chit to UP Police in Vikas Dubey encounter case

A probe panel, formed to inquire into the 'encounter' of gangster Vikar Dubey, who, with his accomplices, had gunned down eight cops, has given a clean chit to the Uttar Pradesh police in the matter.

The three member judicial commission, headed by Supreme Court judge justice (retired) B S Chauhan, submitted its report to the state government. The report would now be submitted to the Supreme Court, which had ordered formation of the Commission after several PIL were filed before it seeking a thorough probe into the alleged encounter.

According to the sources, the Commission visited the spot, where the 'encounter' had taken place in July last year, and spoke to the police personnel and others, who were present at the spot during its inquiry.

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The panel had summoned media personnel, relatives and family members of the slain gangster but none came before it to depose, sources said.

''The panel did not find any evidence to support the claim that the encounter was fake,'' said a senior police official on Wednesday.

Vikas Dubey, with his associates, had killed eight cops, including a circle officer at Bikaru village in Kanpur Dehat district in June last year, when the police team had gone to arrest him.

Dubey, who was nabbed from Ujjain town in Madhya Pradesh, was gunned down in an 'encounter' with the UP police while transporting him to Kanpur on July 2, 2020.

The cops claimed that the car in which Dubey was travelling overturned near Kanpur. ''Dubey snatched the pistol of a cop and tried to flee taking advantage of the situation.... he was asked to surrender but he fired and was killed in retaliatory firing,'' the police had then said.

Rights activists and even a senior ex-IPS officer had questioned their claim and suspected that the 'encounter' might have been conducted to 'save' some people.

Two close aides of the gangster - Prabhat Mishra and Baua Dubey - had also been gunned down in an encounter with the cops barely half a kilomtere away from the spot, where Vikas was killed, a day before. The cops had then too claimed that Prabhat snatched the pistol of a cop and tried to escape and was killed in the ensuing gun battle.