Police officers cordon the site where top criminal Vikas Dubey was killed near Kanpur, India, Friday, July 10, 2020. (AP Photo)
The killing of Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey while he was in the custody of the state police can never be termed as “fake encounter”, the UP Police told the Supreme Court on Friday.
In its detailed reply before the court in connection with the death of Vikas Dubey and his associates, the Director General of Police, UP also added that the state government acted proactively and “has taken all steps to ensure that even a suspicion does not remain on the said incident”.
The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the pleas seeking court-monitored probe into the death of Dubey and his associates. The petitions will be heard by a bench led by the Chief Justice of India. The court is hearing two petitions filed by lawyers, Ghanashyam Upadhayay and Anoop Prakash Awasthi.
According to the police, Dubey was shot dead while trying to escape after a car accident on July 10, a day after his arrest in Madhya Pradesh. Dubey snatched the gun of a policeman and opened fire, the police had said, asserting that they had tried to catch him alive.
He was a prime accused in the killing of eight police personnel who were part of the team that had gone to Bikru village in Kanpur to arrest Dubey in an attempt to murder case on July 2.
The case triggered a political controversy, with opposition leaders alleging a bigger plot behind Dubey’s killing.
Kanpur: Police and media at the encounter site where gangster Vikas Dubey. (PTI Photo)
Meanwhile, the police are considering booking Manu, wife of Shashikant Pandey – slain gangster Vikas Dubey’s cousin and an arrested accused in the killing of the eight policemen at Bikru – as an audio clip surfaced on social media on Thursday.
In the new clip, she is purportedly heard talking to her father-in-law over the phone, saying that Vikas Dubey had come to her home and instructed that her husband (Shashikant) should go to the terrace and open fire if policemen showed up.
Shashikant was arrested on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the killing of eight policemen at Bikru village. His father, Prem Kumar, was killed in a police encounter hours after the policemen were shot dead.