Fake Encounters Circumvents the Procedure Established by Law and Hence Unconstitutional, Advocates urge Allahabad HC CJ to Order Judicial Probe Into Vikas Dubey Encounter
By: – S.A.Anjum Sadiq
Two different letters addressed to the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court raised the questions about the gruesome alleged encounter of Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey on Friday Morning.
Two practising advocates of Allahabad High Court have written two different letters pertaining to the extra-Judicial Killing of UP gangster Vikas Dubey by UP Police.
The first letter petition, written by Supreme Court Advocate Pawan Prakash Pathak and law student Abhijeet Kumar Pandey, seeking an enquiry by a special Invetigation Team (SIT) or the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) into the killing of Vikas Dubey
Their letter petition raises the following points:
1 Whether the “Rule of Law” excuses a killing in an “encounter”?
2 Whether a police encounter is an exception to the principle of an accused being innocent until proved otherwise? And
3 Whether a police encounter is an exception to the right to life and due procedure?
The letter has also quoted the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution(Preventing the deprivation of life and liberty save by established legal procedure), the petitioner explains that the state is responsible for trying an accused person according to criminal laws before depriving him “of his life”.
The letter also admitted that there is no second thought that yes in our society we have some dreaded criminals against whom running a fair trial is difficult, but this vests no right in police machinery to go for encounters as a ultimate option against hard-core criminals & gangsters.
They relied upon the citation of case Prakash Kadam vs RamprasadVishwanath Gupta the Supreme Court observed that fake encounters by the police are nothing but the cold-blooded murders and those committing them must be given death sentences, placing them in the category of rarest of rare case.
Another Plea has been moved by Advocates Bhavya Sahai and Devesh Saxena two lawyers practicing in the Allahabad High Court seeking a judicial probe into Vikas Dubey’s Encounter.
The letter states that the extra-Judicial murder/killing of the dreaded criminal Vikas Dubey has completely traumatised the faith of the common man in the Rule of Law.
According to the reported version as given by the U.P, Police while they were on their way to bring the aforesaid criminal back to Kanpur .Uttar Pradesh media reports floated that one of the cars in their convoy got overturned in suspicious circumstances and later it was declared that criminal Vikas Dubey has been killed in an encounter since he was trying to escape the custody of the police.
The aforesaid version as given by the UP Police appears to be fictional and rather plagiarised from some Bollywood Movie script. It is highly unlikely and improbable that a criminal being in cusody of numerous S.I.Y. officials and in their tight classified security will try to escape himself while on their way to Kanpur.UP.
[Read Pavan Pathak Letter]
[Read Saxena Letter]
