The very fact that PSI K.K. Sharma has sought protection of the Supreme Court from being killed by the Uttar Pradesh police in a fake encounter speaks volumes about the so-called "encounter" in which notorious gangster Vikas Dubey was shot dead on July 10.
For Vikas Dubey, though a notorious gangster with a bounty on his head, has as much a right to the law protecting him against being shot dead by the police – as the rest of us. For with his death, policemen and politicians who may have connived to kill him in cold blood – can now heave a sigh of relief.
The sincerity of the Yogi Adityanath government to find out if Vikas Dubey was murdered can be seen from the fact that the DIG who is part of the 3-man-SIT team to find out if Vikas Dubey was murdered, J. Ravindra Goud, a 2005-batch IPS officer was himself charge-sheeted by the CBI for allegedly shooting dead a medicine trader in cold blood on June 30, 2007. The victim was Mukul Gupta who was shot dead at Bareilly by a police team headed by Goud who was a deputy SP at that time.
Ironically, Gupta's parents who petitioned the Allahabad High Court against the blatant lies of the police that the victim was a hard core criminal, were both murdered. Perhaps by the same policemen who murdered their son. The fact remains that the Samajwadi Party-led Akhilesh Yadav and BJP-led Yogi Adityanath governments both refused permission to the CBI to prosecute Ravindra Goud for the cold-blooded murder of Mukul Gupta. This is why the three-member SIT team, will in all probability give a clean chit to the so-called "encounter specialists" who shot dead Vikas Dubey.
The Supreme Court has asked the UP government to respond to its nominating a retired judge to head a probe panel into the so-called encounter of Vikas Dubey.
Some startling discrepancies are that reporters who were tailing Vikas Dubey were suddenly blocked minutes before the "encounter" took place and that the police officer whose revolver Vikas Dubey grabbed has not been suspended. The gangster was seated between two policemen and could easily have been overpowered given the fact there were over 60 policemen in front of him and behind him in several cars.
Vikas Dubey shot to notoriety in 2001 when he chased and shot dead a BJP minister, Santosh Shukla, in the cabinet of then UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, who is the defence minister under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 20 unarmed Indian Army soldiers who were hunted down and brutally killed by the Chinese malefactors have rightly been declared martyrs. But like Shukla whom Dubey murdered on November 11, 2001, they too have a right to life and protection of the law. Shukla was a Brahmin like Dubey and the arch political rival of Bahujan Samaj Party speaker of the UP Assembly, Hari Krishna Srivastava, who Vikas Dubey claimed was his prime benefactor and godfather. Naturally Srivastava denied being a patron of Vikas Dubey.
The 25 policemen of Shivli police station who saw the brutal killing refused to depose against Vikas Dubey thereby ensuring his acquittal. The UP government did not file an appeal against the acquittal which led to Vikas Dubey giving money and muscle power to successive governments, in what is jocularly called Ulta Pradesh, of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the BJP. The Allahabad High Court reportedly stayed the conviction of a single murder case to order no coercive steps were to be taken against Vikas Dubey, making a mockery of the right to life and liberty guaranteed by the Constitution under Article 21.
Apart from dignitaries, there were photos of Vikas Dubey with BJP MLAs Abhijeet Sanga and Bhagwati Sagar – although both deny patronising Vikas Dubey.
When his wife contested zilla parishad elections, Vikas Dubey proudly posed with the BSP MP Brijesh Pathak, who is a minister for law and justice under Yogi Adityanath. Of course, Pathak will deny links with Vikas Dubey just as the two BJP MLAs did. But the shooting of Vikas Dubey has proved very convenient for all these dignitaries and tainted police officers like Vinay Tiwari whom another police officer accused of being a mole of Vikas Dubey. This officer, Devender Mishra wrote to the then Sr SSP Anant Deo Tiwari accusing the then SHO of being a mole but the senior Tiwari ignored the letter, allegedly culminating in the death of eight policemen on July 2.
It is the state itself which has flouted the Constitution to turn Ulta Pradesh into a police state.
This fact has been vindicated by the Additional Director General of Police (law and order) declaring on September 16, 2017: "Encounters are conducted as per the desires of the government, expectations of the public, and according to the Constitution and legal power given to the police." This worthy has ignored the fact that the former CJI who headed the National Human Rights Commission in 1997 declared that policemen who indulged in fake encounters were deprived of their protection and had to be tried as common suspects according to the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. The only exceptions being when they shot a criminal in self-defence or while trying to prevent the escape of a gangster.
Of course, the police in Ulta Pradesh will claim Vikas Dubey forfeited his life while trying to escape. A conclusion which all the probe panels may find impossible to rebut.
The writer holds a Ph.D in Media Law and is a journalist-cum-lawyer of the Bombay High Court.
