Two more petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into gangster Vikas Dubey’s ‘encounter’ killing by UP police personnel.
One petition has been filed by advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi and the second by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
Both petitions, while pointing out the alleged fake encounter of Vikas Dubey and other co-accused, have contented that the police version of the encounter raises many serious questions, in particular, whether they are “simple administrative liquidations.”
While the petition filed by Awasthi raises serious questions on whether instant justice given by the police is permissible in a democratic society governed by the rule of law, bypassing the criminal justice system, the petition filed by PUCL has brought to light various incidents where the Uttar Pradesh police has been shown to be allegedly indulging in massive encounters with impunity.
Awasthi submitted that “the case at hand is a rough example of state anger and state terrorism.”
Awasthi has further raised the question “whether the killing of Vikas Dubey is done in revenge and in a cold blooded manner and the same requires investigation by an independent agency, as India TV news already reported, the police planned on killing Vikas Dubey at least 12 hours before the encounter.”
PUCL has further submitted that despite the judgement rendered by the Supreme Court in the case of ‘PUCL vs State of Maharashtra’, the states are not following the directions of the apex court.
While PUCL has urged the court to constitute a Special Investigation Team to investigate into the present encounters of Vikas Dubey, Amar Dubey and Prabhat Mishra, Awasthi has sought for the appointment of the CBI or NIA to prosecute the police in the Kanpur encounter case.
PUCL has also prayed for constitution of a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to enquire into the encounters that have been taking place in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the criminal-politician nexus which has been prevailing in the state.
Apart from the above petitions, similar other petitions have been placed before the Chief Justice, in the form of letter petitions and also before the Allahabad High Court, requiring independent investigation into the alleged fake encounter of Vikas Dubey and his associates.
-India Legal Bureau