Appalled that Vikas Dubey was granted bail: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday (July 20) said it was “appalled” that the gangster got bail despite so many cases against him while hearing pleas seeking probe into Vikas Dubey and his aides encounter.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde asked the Uttar Pradesh government to consider adding a former apex court judge and a retired police officer in the inquiry committee which is probing the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey and that it “cannot spare a sitting top court judge to become a part of the inquiry committee.”

UP government has also agreed to rework its committee probing the encounters. The reconstituted panel will now include a retired Supreme Court judge and retired police officer, along with the existing retired high court judge, the UP government said.

“You as a state have to uphold the rule of law. It is your duty to do so,” the top court said hearing a batch of pleas seeking court-monitored probe into the encounters of Dubey and his alleged associates. The bench added that they were appalled to the fact that “a person like Vikas Dubey got the bail despite so many cases.”

“This is the failure of the institution and the person, who should have been behind the bars, got bail,” the bench observed during the hearing which is going on.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, sought some time to take instruction and get back to the court on the issue.

Earlier on Friday (July 17), the Director General of Police, UP in a detailed reply told the top court that the encounter was real and not fake. “Vikas Dubey’s killing is not a fake encounter. His case cannot be compared with the Telangana encounter. While Telangana didn’t order a judicial commission, the UP government has done so,” he had said.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 3.

Dubey was killed in an encounter in the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area, the police had said.

Prior to Dubeys encounter, five of his alleged associated were killed in separate encounters.