A series of petitions were filed in the Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday seeking an independent probe into the police encounter of Vikas Dubey and his associates on Friday.
One of the petitions, filed by Anoop Prakash Awasthi, begins by asking “shall we close our honourable courts, prosecution agencies and dismantle the system of administration of criminal justice as the trigger-happy cops in Uttar Pradesh do not need them and believe only upon their fire power when taking any adversary or outlaw in their custody?” Mr. Awasthi asked the court to appoint a central agency like the NIA or the CBI to probe the “police-criminal-politician nexus” involved in the deaths of the eight police officers and the encounter killings of Dubey and his henchmen.
A separate plea was also filed by NGO, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, saying the police version of the encounter “raises many serious questions”. It had previously moved the court for a probe into U.P. police encounters between January 2017 and March 2018.
“The incidents, which have been revealed in the killing of Vikas Dubey and his associates, are very shocking in particular keeping in view continuous cases of mass encounters in the State of U.P. which have taken place from January 1, 2017, onwards.”
A Maharashtra-based lawyer, Ghanshyam Upadhyay, who filed a petition in the court hours before the police encounter of Dubey, had sought an urgent court hearing on Saturday (July 11) itself.
In a written communication to the Supreme Court on Saturday, Mr. Upadhyay sought an “extremely urgent” hearing, saying the U.P. police have made their intention clear to kill “everyone related to Vikas Dubey” without ascertaining whether they are in anyway associated with the July 3 ambush and killings.
It said there was apprehension that ‘the manner in which U.P. police have resorted to kill everyone related to Vikas Dubey without ascertaining their involvement in the alleged crime or otherwise, it is axiomatic that the U.P. police and administration have no fear, faith and respect for law and judiciary and they have become law unto themselves and the police are taking the country towards ‘Talibanisation’ which cannot be countenanced at any cost”.
