Inquiries against Vikas Dubey never impartial: Judicial panel

The Commission has concluded in its report that there was enough evidence that Dubey and his gang were patronised by local police, revenue and administrative officials, and recommended an inquiry against the “erring public servants”.

The report of the Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice B S Chauhan, with retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shashi Kant Agarwal and former UP Director General of Police KL Gupta as its members, was tabled by the UP government in the Assembly on Thursday.

On July 3 last year, a police team that had gone to Bikru village in Kanpur to arrest Dubey had come under heavy gunfire from rooftops near the gangster’s home. Eight policemen, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra, died in the ambush.

Of the 21 people named in the FIR, police gunned down six accused, including Dubey, in alleged encounters over the following weeks. On July 10, Dubey was killed when a police vehicle ferrying him from Ujjain, from where he was arrested, to Kanpur met with an accident. Police alleged that he tried to escape and opened fire, and that he was killed in retaliatory fire.

The Commission said that Dubey and his associates easily and quickly got bail from the courts as there was no serious opposition by the state authorities or the government advocates.

“Sections relating to serious offences were dropped before filing the chargesheet. During the trial, most of the witnesses turn hostile… He (Vikas Dubey) was involved in 64 criminal cases, and the State authorities never considered it appropriate to engage a special counsel for his prosecution. The State never moved any application for cancellation of bail or approached the superior court for cancellation of any of the bail orders,” the report said.

“The State had not contested the matter any further by approaching the Hon’ble Supreme Court against the said order passed by the High Court refusing to grant leave to appeal,” it added.

The Commission also said that “there is nothing on record to show that his (Dubey) cases had ever sincerely been contested by the government advocates before the High Court”.

“In most of the cases, the High Court had granted interim relief to Vikas Dubey, staying the proceedings before the subordinate courts in various criminal cases and he remained under the protection of such orders for a period of 13-14 years. The High Court granted bail to Vikas Dubey and his associates, mainly on the ground that he had been acquitted in a large number of cases without making any attempt to know as to under what circumstances he had been acquitted and how and why the witnesses have turned hostile in most of the cases,” the report said.