The Supreme Court on Friday closed the hearing on pleas seeking relief, including the re-constitution of a commission, to inquire into the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey and others and directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to act upon the recommendations of the panel.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, also directed that the report of the three-member inquiry panel headed by Justice (retd) BS Chauhan of the apex court be put in the public domain and uploaded on its website.
The bench, also comprising Justices Krishan Murari and Hima Kohli, agreed to the submissions of the Uttar Pradesh Government that under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, the panel has run its course, its report has been filed and laid on the floor of the Assembly and it cannot be appealed or assailed as happened in the case of a judgement.
"Now the inquiry commission has submitted its report. The counsel appearing for the State says that the report of the inquiry was placed on the floor of the House for further action... And if the (PIL) petitioners are still aggrieved then the course is to pursue the remedy under the law.
"We direct the State Government to take appropriate action as per the recommendations given by the inquiry commission. The copy of the report be kept in the public domain and on the Supreme Court website. With the above observations, the writ (petitions) are closed," the apex court said in its order.
The Justice Chauhan panel, in its report, had said there is no suspicion or doubt about the police version of the killing of gangster Dubey and other members of his gang in encounters after the Bikru ambush in Kanpur in July 2020 as nobody from the public or the media came to contradict the police claim and no evidence was filed in rebuttal. The other two members of the inquiry commission were - former High Court judge Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Director General of Police of Uttar Pradesh K L Gupta.
Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in Bikru village in the Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 3, 2020.
Dubey was killed in an encounter on the morning of July 10, 2020, when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in the Bhauti area, the police had said. Prior to Dubey's encounter, five of his alleged associates were killed in separate encounters.