In another hour Vikas Dubey, Uttar Pradesh’s most notorious gangster accused of ambushing and killing eight Uttar Pradesh Policemen, would have reached Kanpur with the posse of policemen who had arrested him after his dramatic appearance at the Mahakal temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. He was shot dead en route. According to the police version, Dubey had attempted to flee after the car they were in, had slipped and fallen into a roadside pot hole. The encounter sight soon became a hot spot and the rush of locals even caused a traffic jam.

The police encounter on Friday July 10, of the gangster who had ‘surrendered’ peacefully on Thursday July 9, and was being brought to UP for further investigations, has reopened the debate on such killings. There is a sharp divide between those who are hailing this killing as a positive impact on criminals, or even justice for the policemen killed in an ambush allegedly by Dubey and his gang, and those who say the rule of law should have been followed and Dubey should have been tried and punished by the courts.

The UP police have told the media that after their vehicle met with an accident on the rain slicked road, Dubey tried to flee, apparently after snatching a pistol from a cop, and was subsequently shot dead in a field near the road. After days of being chased by UP police in connection with the killing of eight policemen in an ambush at village Bikru, near Kanpur, Dubey had surrendered to the police just a day before his ‘encounter’.

Dubey’s killing comes close on the heels of the ‘encounters’ where most of his gang members were killed over the last few days in separate incidents across Uttar Pradesh. According to news reports even on July 3, the day the policemen were killed in the ambush, Dubey’s aides identified as Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey, were killed in an encounter in Kanpur. Multiple news reports detailed how another Dubey aide, Amar Dubey, was killed on July 8 at Maudaha village in Hamirpur district. The next day, July 9, two more men associated with Dubey, and wanted in connection with the Kanpur ambush, Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey and Prabhat Mishra were killed in two separate encounters in Etawah and Kanpur respectively. Mishra had been arrested from Faridabad a day before he was killed.

Prashant Kumar, UP ADG-Law & Order told mediapersons that three sub-inspectors, one constable and two STF commandos were injured during the incident. So far, three people have been arrested, six accused killed and seven people have been sent to jail (under section 120B IPC). 12 wanted criminals still absconding.

The sense of a repeating sequence of events has been noted by most people following the Vikar Dubey case and subsequent encounters of him and his gang by Uttar Pradesh Police. In fact a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) into the killings of Vikas Dubey’s aides by the Uttar Pradesh Police. According to a report in the Hindustan Times the plea, which was filed before Dubey himself was killed, had raised concerns that the gangster from Uttar Pradesh too might suffer the same fate. The petitioner Ghaynshyam Upadhyay, therefore, prayed that Dubey should be given adequate security so that he is dealt with as per the law, stated the HT report. “Killing of accused by police in the name of encounter is against the rule of law and serious violation of human right and this is nothing short of Talibanisation of the country,” stated the petition.

It is a matter of public record that the (then) Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) Justice (retired) M.N. Venkatachaliah had once made crucial observations on such encounters. He had stated that, “Under our laws the police have not been conferred any right to take away the life of another person. If, by his act, the policeman kills a person, he commits the offence of culpable homicide whether amounting to the offence of murder or not unless it is proved that such killing was not an offence under the law.” 

However, he had added that “it would not be an offence if death is caused in the exercise of the right of private defence.” And that there was another provision “under which the police officer can justify the causing of death of another person, is Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This provision authorises the police to use force, extending upto the causing of death, as may be necessary to arrest the person accused of an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life. It is, therefore, clear that when death is caused in an encounter, and if it is not justified as having been caused in exercise of the legitimate right of private defence, or in proper exercise of the power of arrest under Section 46 of the Cr.P.C., the police officer causing the death, would be guilty of the offence of culpable homicide. Whether the causing of death in the encounter in a particular case was justified as falling under any one of the two conditions, can only be ascertained by proper investigation and not otherwise.”

The NHRC had also recommend the following as correct procedure for investigations into police encounters:
 

• When the police officer in charge of a Police Station receives information about the deaths in an encounter between the Police party and others, he shall enter that information in the appropriate register.

• The information as received shall be regarded as sufficient to suspect the commission of a cognizable offence and immediate steps should be taken to investigate the facts and circumstances leading to the death to ascertain what, if any, offence was committed and by whom.

• As the police officers belonging to the same Police Station are the members of the encounter party, it is appropriate that the cases are made over for investigation to some other independent investigation agency, such as State CID.

• Question of granting of compensation to the dependents of the deceased may be considered in cases ending in conviction, if police officers are prosecuted on the basis of the results of the investigation.

According to advocate Abdul Quadir Abbasi, an Advocate on Record, Supreme Court, even if the courts take time to impart justice, the state shouldn’t take the law in their hands. “Court should take suo motu cognisance of such incidents,” he said. The last such encounter which sparked a national debate was the killing of a group of men accuseud of rape and murder, in Telangana in 2019. The four accused had ‘confessed’ to the gruesome gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad in Novermner 2019. The accused were killed in a police encounter on the Bangalore Hyderabad highway, while they were being taken in police custody for a reconstruction of the crime scene. Many had hailed this encounter as an anti crime move then too.

However, according to advocate Quadri, “State surrender before majoritarianism will lead to nowhere. Those people (lawyers in particular) who are supporting the fake encounters are invariably encouraging the concept of a Police state. Authoritarian rule will be established and no independent judiciary will be anymore. This is horrific in a democratic state. Fairness in action is the hallmark of  every democratic set up.”

As activist and Politician Subhashini Ali writes in The Wire, “On assuming the post of chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath declared his intention of making the state crime-free. He said that anyone committing a crime would be hammered (‘thoke jayenge’). There’s a double entendre here: Thoke jayenge is also colloquial for bumping off and, taking their cue from the chief minister, the police adopted ‘encounter’ as their modus operandi against crime, completely ignoring the advice of former DGP Prakash Singh, a tough cop and inveterate champion of police reform, who had warned against making an encounter an expression of public policy.”

Interestingly the UP government had also announced a three-day lockdown yesterday evening. Media vehicles that were following the police convoy transporting Dubey were allegedly stopped from proceeding further at around 6:30 A.M by policemen at a checkpoint. This was just 30 minutes before the alleged encounter. Angry media persons then confronted the police officer on duty only to be told that there was no special reason to stop the media. It was just “general checking” as this was a check-point. Twitter user Amit Kabi tweeted a video of the confrontation.

Media People were chasing the car in which #VikasDubey was moving.

Police stopped all media people in the name of fake checking pic.twitter.com/1JDqdvnsAd

— Amit Kabi (@amitkabi) July 10, 2020

While the the ‘celebrations,’ have begun in all earnest amongst some, politician Omar Abdullah has said it best: “Dead men tell no tales”

Dead men tell no tales #VikasDubey

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 10, 2020

Related:

UP gangster Vikas Dubey surrenders, arrested at Mahakal Temple in MP

Social media hails gangster Vikas Dubey as ‘lion’, ‘Brahmin Shiromani’

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“Main Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpur wala. (I am Vikas Dubey, the one from Kanpur),” roars the pot bellied man in a white striped full sleeve tee shirt, just before a policeman swats him on the head as if he is a teenager speaking out of turn then pins him on the side of a white car, before he is taken away. The arrested man does not resist much. Actually he does not have to as there is no force, or struggle at all after he walks out of the temple compound, barefeet. The news agency ANI has shared this video clip on twitter where it has been viewed hundreds of times. 

#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: After arrest in Ujjain, Vikas Dubey confesses, “Main Vikas Dubey hoon, Kanpur wala.” #KanpurEncounter pic.twitter.com/bIPaqy2r9d

— ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2020

Vikas Dubey, is now best described as the most wanted gangster from Uttar Pradesh, who is a wanted criminal most recently in connection with the horrific attack in Kanpur where eight policemen were killed. After almost a week of a massive manhunt Dubey was arrested from the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. According to media reports, Dubey is accused in at least 60 criminal cases, that include murder. A police team had gone to Bikru village, near Kanpur city on July 2, to arrest Dubey, when it came under massive fire. The 20 policemen were caught unawares in what appeared to be a planned ambush and were hit with a hail of bullets fired from rooftops. Eight police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police and three sub-inspectors, were killed that day, and many others injured.

Dubey, who also claims political connections, has been on the run since then with UP police giving chase. Rumours flew fast and thick about ‘Dubey sightings’ in various cities in north India, before he surfaced at the Mahakal Temple  Thursday in Madhya Pradesh. He was apparently on a VIP darshan, before he ‘surrendered’ to the police. 

Sounds almost like a masala laced gangster movie that Bollywood churns out regularly. Dubey had smoothly managed to cross three state borders, travel in a car with a UP number plate, which according to a report in Amar Ujala had the word ‘magistrate’ written on it. This raises the important question: Why was this car not intercepted at any police post, or toll gate even as the country is still under Covid-19 protocol and a large number of police detail is on patrol duty across the country, especially in areas which are containment zones. Dubey was not in disguise and the photos posted after his arrest show him even without a mandatory face mask.  

Unchecked by the police of three states he drove through, Dubey easily reached the Mahakal temple, itself a high security zone, where he bought a VIP darshan ticket for Rs 250. According to information shared by journalists, it was a guard at the temple who recognised Vikas Dubey stopped him and called the police. The next question to be asked here is, the wanted criminal waited patiently for police to arrest him?

For those who have been to Mahakal would know – u can pay Rs 250 for a VIP Darshan (much shorter queue) at the temple. Vikas Dubey paid the same & went for the Darshan inside, the guard on duty Lakhan Yadav recognised him and Dubey was stopped on the way out and police was called

— Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_ET) July 9, 2020

He will now be brought back to Uttar Pradesh on a transit remand. News reports quote ADG, Law and Order Prashant Kumar saying, “Our campaign against all those involved in the Kanpur case will continue till not even a single member of the Dubey gang is left.” 

However, his surrender, and subsequent arrest are not being seen as an ‘achievement’ for Uttar Pradesh police by those who have been following the case. As journalist Ankit Tyagi said, “Let nobody be fooled by the successful arrest claims of #VikasDubey by MP Police. This was a planned surrender, while the clueless UP Police was searching Tv studios. Dubey travelled 6 days, hundreds of Kms across 3 BJP ruled states. You embarrassed your fallen Comrades #UPPolice”

Let nobody be fooled by the successful arrest claims of #VikasDubey by MP Police. This was a planned surrender, while the clueless UP Police was searching Tv studios. Dubey travelled 6 days, hundreds of Kms across 3 BJP ruled states. You embarrassed your fallen Comrades #UPPolice pic.twitter.com/NZv96BcFmH

— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) July 9, 2020

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also raised questions and blamed the UP government for the way the case has been handled so far. “After the brutal massacre of Kanpur, UP government failed to work with the alacrity they should have. The way in which the accused reached Ujjain despite an alert not just exposes false claims of security but also points to a nexus,” Priyanka Gandhi tweeted, adding “… No action on the three-month-old letter and the absence of ‘Vikas’ in the list of notorious criminals suggests that the wires in this case are connected.  The UP government should conduct a CBI inquiry into the matter and reveal all the facts and concerns of the protection.”

… तीन महीने पुराने पत्र पर ‘नो एक्शन’ और कुख्यात अपराधियों की सूची में ‘विकास’ का नाम न होना बताता है कि इस मामले के तार दूर तक जुड़े हैं।

यूपी सरकार को मामले की CBI जांच करा सभी तथ्यों और प्रोटेक्शन के ताल्लुकातों को जगज़ाहिर करना चाहिए। 2/2

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) July 9, 2020

As reported by NDTV other important questions raised are: Where was Dubey hiding all these days? And how did he manage to travel 700 km by road from Faridabad in Haryana, through Rajasthan’s Kota to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh in a car with a UP number plate?

“We had caught many of his associates and a few were killed. So definitely he was trying to save his life and on the run,” said Mohit Aggarwal, Inspector General, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, when asked how he was caught in Ujjain, far from the places where he was being searched.
 

As quoted by NDTV, Amitabh Thakur, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer posted in UP said, “We could not arrest Vikas Dubey and he surrendered in Ujjain. We could not arrest him even after such a huge incident and he kept travelling around. This should be investigated.”
 

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra asserted that Vikas Dubey was arrested, he did not surrender. “He entered Madhya Pradesh via Rajasthan’s Kota in a car with two aides, Bittu and Suresh. He used a fake ID with the last name ‘Paul’,” said the NDTV report.

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