The Supreme Court on Monday said that the Uttar Pradesh government should consider including a former judge of the top court and a retired police officer in the inquiry committee that is looking into the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey, reported PTI. The top court also expressed shock that Dubey had been granted bail despite a multitude of cases against him.
Dubey was the main accused in the murder of eight Uttar Pradesh policemen in a shootout in Kanpur’s Bikru village on July 3. The gangster was arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain city, and was killed in police custody on July 10 while allegedly attempting to escape.
“...You as a state government you are responsible to maintain rule of law,” a bench presided by Chief Justice SA Bobde said during the hearing on Monday. “It requires arrests, trial and sentencing.... We are appalled to the fact that a person like Vikas Dubey got the bail despite so many cases. This is a failure. We want an accurate report of all the orders.”
The top court added that it would not be able to spare one of its sitting judges to be part of the inquiry committee. “We are going to form a committee,” Bobde said, according to Live Law. “We want a former Supreme Court judge in this committee and a former police officer in it.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, agreed with the top court’s suggestion. However, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of one of the petitioners, said the court should appoint the committee and not the state government.
One of the petitioners, Vishal Tiwari, compared Dubey’s killing with an encounter in Telangana, and urged the Supreme Court not to include judges in the investigating panel. “There is a similarity between Telangana encounter and Kanpur. Accused in both were given transit remand and were in police custody. Please don’t include the judges,” the petitioner said.
The Telangana encounter pertains to the killing of four men accused of raping and murdering a Hyderabad-based veterinary doctor in November. The top court had then set up a panel headed by Justice VS Sirpurkar to look into the case. The panel began its investigation in February and is yet to submit its report.
“How dare you say that retired High Court and Supreme Court judges is not independent,” the chief justice said during the hearing on Monday, according to Bar and Bench. Following this, the matter was posted for further hearing on Wednesday.
The Uttar Pradesh government agreed to bring a draft notification of those included in the inquiry committee. The Supreme Court will take it into consideration and give its approval on Wednesday.
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