A statement signed by intellectuals and Left leaders was sent via e-mail to the Supreme Court on 10 July, seeking that the apex court defend democracy, justice, law and order and the Constitution, an order an impartial enquiry into the suspicious circumstances in which the ‘encounter’ of Vikas Dubey took place. The statement pointed out that many questions are raised by the way in which Vikas Dubey was killed in an ‘encounter’ (like his gangster colleagues were killed earlier) when he was being taken to Kanpur after he ‘surrendered’ under suspicious circumstances at Ujjain a week after the murder of the 8 policemen who had gone to arrest him in Kanpur. It looks as if the Uttar Pradesh government clearly does not want the truth to come to the surface. First, the scene of the crime was destroyed and evidence erased without any due process of law; and now the ‘encounter’ killing of the gangsters gives rise to suspicion.
The way in which things are happening is no longer just a question of criminal-police nexus; now the government is utilizing the police like a private gang. A Lockdown has been imposed on the rule of law and the police system in Uttar Pradesh is now about serial ‘encounters’ , in which process police personnel occasionally lose their lives. This is extremely worrisome from the point of view of Constitutional rule.
The statement further says that Constitutional democracy in India cannot look upon the matter of the murder of 8 policemen in Kanpur as a closed chapter with the ‘encounter’ of Vikas Dubey. There are many questions which require honest and credible answers. The ‘Encounter Raj’ has clearly failed in improving the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh; on the contrary, there has been a sharp rise in crimes and murders.
The statement raises the following demands: an independent judicial enquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to enquire into the murder of the 8 policemen, destruction of Vikas Dubey’s home, the scene of the crime, without any due legal process, and the ‘encounter’ of Vikas Dubey and his fellow-gangsters in suspicious circumstances; the scope of the enquiry should include the criminal-political-police nexus which produces gangsters like Vikas Dubey who have weapons like AK 47s and dare to murder police personnel in broad daylight. Moreover, the statement said, the honorable Supreme Court has provided a 16 point set of guidelines (2014) in the matter of encounter killings, but these guidelines are rarely, if ever, followed. Therefore we request the honorable Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the Vikas Dubey encounter and the preceding events, order a judicial enquiry, and enforce the 16-point guideline which requires that the police personnel responsible for such deaths face trial with charges of Section 302. This will send a strong message from the Court in favor of the rule of law and will help to curb the practice of indiscriminate encounter killings by the police which is against the basic principles of Constitutional rule.
