New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear a plea seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into encounters of Vikas Dubey and his five aides, who were allegedly involved in the killing of eight policemen in Kanpur on July 3.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and A.S. Bopanna will take up the matter through video conferencing.
The plea was moved by advocate and petitioner-in-person Ghanshyam Upadhyay, seeking urgent hearing on the matter.
On Friday morning, Dubey was killed in an alleged encounter with STF personnel when he was being taken to Kanpur from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh where he was arrested a day earlier.
He was shot when he reportedly tried to flee, following a road ‘accident’ in which the vehicle he was travelling in overturned. Another plea in this matter has been filed by Anoop Prakash Awasthi.
Upadhyay has also moved an intervention application in the top court placing additional facts, which have emerged after the filing of the petition.
The petitioner contended that going by the facts and circumstances which have surfaced so far, it is axiomatic and clearly discernible that the extreme inhuman and barbaric acts of killing/murdering six accused under the guise of encounter are nothing sort of ‘Talibanisation’ of the country by the people in power, which have taken place at the instance and behest of none other than the person/s at high echelon of power.
“The SIT to be constituted by this court must consist people of high integrity and unimpeachable character and it should be headed by a retired judge of this court and it must also consist of retired officials from central investigating agencies like RAW, NIA, CBI etc., so that the members of the SIT are kept free from any and every kind of influence/pressure by/from the people in power, who possibly would leave no stone unturned to derail the investigation,” said the application.
The plea contended that the acts of Uttar Pradesh Police/administration of pulling down/demolishing the residential building, shopping mall of Dubey and also his expensive cars/vehicles and various other movable/immovable properties with the help of bulldozer, JCB, Poclain machines were highly illegal and impermissible in law.
“Punishing the accused/culprit after his crime being proved is the function of the competent court of law and thus, police cannot usurp jurisdiction to itself to punish the accused by killing him in the name of encounter before his crime is proved in accordance with the law,” said the plea.