Police officer, suspended for alleged role in Vikas Dubey case, moves SC seeking protection

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 12

An Uttar Pradesh Police officer arrested for allegedly leaking information about a raid to nab gangster Vikas Dubey has moved the Supreme Court seeking protection after encounter killing of Dubey and his associates.

In a petition filed through his wife, Vinita Sirohi, Sub-Inspector Krishn Kumar Sharma expressed apprehension that he might be eliminated through “illegal and unconstitutional means”.

Sharma and three other cops were suspended on July 5 for their alleged involvement in giving a tip-off to Dubey about the police raid on July 3. Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed and killed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur on their way to arrest Dubey.

On Friday, Dubey was killed in an encounter after a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur allegedly met with an accident and he tried to flee.

Questioning the police version about leaking information, Sharma, who is currently in jail, asserted he was directed by his in-charge Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer of Chaubeypur police station, to remain at the police station.

On Saturday, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had moved the Supreme Court seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) monitored probe into the killings of Dubey and his associates.

The PUCL filed an application in a petition already filed by it in 2018 that questioned the police encounters in Uttar Pradesh between January 2017 and March 2018. Now, it wants a probe into the encounter killing of Dubey and his associates Amar Dubey and Prabhat Mishra as also the criminal-political nexus in Uttar Pradesh.

Hours before Dubey was killed in an encounter, advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to UP Government to ensure the gangster’s safety as he apprehended that cops might kill him.

Upadhyay said his petition would come up for hearing on Tuesday.