Three-member panel probing Vikas Dubey's encounter gives clean chit to police

A threemember commission probing the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey has given a clean chit to police stating their version of events about his death were supported by evidenceThe commission said that Kanpur ambush in which eight cops were killed occurred because of poor planning by the police as it did not assess the situation correctly and there was total failure of Kanpur local intelligenceParliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna tabled the report in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on ThursdayThe evidence adduced in the Dubey encounter case supports polices version of the incident The injuries suffered by policemen could not be selfinflicted or fabricated Dr RS Mishra who was on the panel of doctors conducted the postmortem and clarified that the injuries found on his person Dubey could be caused as per the version of police the report saidAlso Read Vikas Dubeys fan pages being pulled down after police probeNobody 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 polices version of the incidentA magisterial inquiry conducted by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kanpur Nagar has a similar findingEight police personnel including deputy superintendent of police were killed during a raid on Dubeys house at Bikru village in Kanpur district on the night of July 23 2020Later 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 saidThe commission comprised Justice Retd BS Chauhan Justice Retd SK Agarwal and former UP director general of police KL Gupta It had submitted a 824page report to the state government on April 21The commission said there is sufficient material on record to show that Vikas Dubey and his gang were patronised by the local police revenue and administrative officialsHe 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 always humiliated by the police Even if higher authorities gave directions to lodge a complaint the local police dictated the terms it saidThough 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 disputesHis wife was elected as a Zila Panchayat member and his brothers wife was elected as Bikru villages pradhan They were both living in Lucknow If any person of the area wanted help from them he would contact Vikas Dubey and he would resolve their problem The elected people never came into the picture the report saidMost 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 andor grant of fair price shop licences the commission notedInvestigation in any case lodged against them Dubeys gang was never impartial Sections relating to serious offences were dropped before filing the chargesheet During the trial most of the witnesses turn hostile Vikas Dubey and his associates got bail orders from courts easily and quickly as there was no serious opposition by state authorities or government advocates it addedHe was involved in 64 criminal cases State authorities never considered it appropriate to engage a special counsel for his prosecution it said adding the state never moved any application for cancellation of bail or approached a superior court for cancellation of any bail ordersIn most of the cases the high court had granted interim relief to Dubey staying the proceedings before subordinate courts in criminal cases and he remained under the protection of such orders for 1314 years it saidThe commission said the HC granted bail to Dubey and his associates mainly on the ground that he had been acquitted in a large number of cases without attempting to know under what circumstances he was acquitted and how and why the witnesses turned hostile in most of the casesAbout the ambush it said some police personnel posted in Chaubeypur police station had intimated Dubey about the impending raid which gave him an opportunity to call his associates with armsThere was a total failure of intelligence unit in Kanpur in collecting information about criminal activities and possession of sophisticated weapons legal and illegal by Vikas Dubey and his gang No proper caution was taken while preparing for the raid as 3840 police personnel reached village Bikru and none of them was wearing a bulletproof jacket Only 18 of them had arms the rest had gone emptyhanded or with sticks the report saidThe incident occurred because of poor planning by the police as it did not assess the situation correctlyIn fact it did never expect that Dubey would retaliate with sophisticated weapons and his associates would take positions on on the roofs of houses They were unaware that some police officials of Chaubeypur had already informed Dubey about the raid it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever