NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file its response on the petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the killing of gangster Vikas Dubey in Kanpur by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde slated the hearing for July 20 and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for Uttar Pradesh government, to file a report on the steps they have taken so far.
During the hearing, the court said it is open to forming a judicial committee to probe the incident. However, the order in this regard has not been passed yet. The court said this is something which the court will do reluctantly. However, since there was a precedent of forming a judicial committee to probe a similar encounter killing in Telangana in December 2019, the court was willing to pass a similar order in this case, too.
The court sought suggestions from petitioners on possible names to head the probe committee. The state government had already formed a judicial committee to investigate Dubey’s alleged nexus with the police.
Retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shashi Kant Agarwal is the only member of the committee.
Dubey was killed in an encounter on the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur toppled over in an accident and he tried to escape from the spot after snatching the revolver of a police officer, the police had said The opposition has alleged that Dubey was killed to cover up a gangster-police-politician nexus in Uttar Pradesh.