Vikas Dubey's encounter: Subramanian Swamy breaks silence; fires question at Congress

As the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey raised numerous questions and demand for investigation have been by political parties and human rights activists, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy backed UP CM Yogi Adityanath against the 'howling'. Taking to Twitter, Swamy said that why are Congress and others wanting an inquiry in the killing of a gangster who killed several Policemen. Even as Swamy acknowledged that 'Police may have been jumpy', hinting at the lapses in the narrative put forth by the Police teams, he maintained that self-defence is 'understandable.'

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Priyanka Vadra demands investigation

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government in the state. Maintaining that criminals such as Dubey enjoyed a free pass in UP, she demanded an inquiry into the entire Kanpur scandal by a sitting judge. According to her, the kin of the murdered policemen would not get justice until the people backing Dubey are exposed. 

Moreover, a Supreme Court advocate has moved the Allahabad High Court demanding a CBI probe into the issue. The plea before the Chief justice of Allahabad HC alleged that a fake extra-judicial encounter was carried out by the police in Vikas Dubey’s case.

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Vikas Dubey shot dead

In a major development on Friday morning, gangster Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter, after his car turned turtle as he reached Kanpur. As per Kanpur Police, the gangster attempted to flee and snatched the weapon of a Policeman, after which he was shot dead in the retaliatory firing. Kanpur IG Mohit Agarwal confirmed that he was declared dead as he was brought to the hospital. 

However, Uttar Pradesh STF released a statement on the encounter mentioning that he was being brought to Kanpur in a government vehicle, the STF noted that the problem arose when a herd of cattle suddenly came on the road. To avert any untoward incident, the driver of the vehicle who was tired after a long journey, took a sharp turn which resulted in the accident. The note then stated that Dubey attempted to flee as 4 policemen were injured and snatched a pistol from one of the injured personnel. In self-defence, Police fired bullets.

Vikas Dubey's arrest

Gangster Vikas Dubey was nabbed in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on July 9, six days after he and his associates killed 8 Policemen and injured 6 in the Kanpur encounter. The case was then handed over to the Uttar Pradesh STF after being produced before a UP court via video conference. He was then taken to Kanpur.

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Kanpur encounter

Vikas Dubey was facing 60 criminal cases and was the main accused of the Kanpur encounter. The Kanpur encounter took place in the intervening night of June 2 in which 8 UP Police personnel were killed and 6 were injured. Dubey and his associates fired on the police team that had reached his hideout in Bikru village under Chaubeypur Police station. Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra, three sub-inspectors, and 4 constables were killed. Two criminals were also killed in the encounter, however, Vikas Dubey and his other associates managed to flee from the spot.

Moreover, four policemen have been arrested in the matter till date. On July 4, Kanpur SHO Vinay Tewari was suspended over negligence on duty. A surveillance team found few policemen on the call details linked to Dubey with Kanpur SHO Vinay Tewari being one of them. During the manhunt for Vikas Dubey, Police have also killed 5 of his associates in various encounters - Amar Dubey, Atul Dubey, Kartikeya Mishra alias Prabhat, Praveen Dubey alias Bauua, and Prem Pandey.