UP Cop Accused Of Tipping Off Vikas Dubey Approaches SC Fearing 'Encounter'

Uttar Pradesh Sub-inspector KK Sharma who has been accused of tipping off Vikas Dubey ahead of Kanpur arrest has pleaded to Supreme Court for CBI probe and protection.

File Photo/PTI

New Delhi: Sub-inspector KK Sharma from Chaubeypur police station has urged the Supreme Court to transfer the Vaks Dubey case investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while anticipating a threat to his life.  For the uninitiated, Sub-inspector KK Sharma is accused of tipping Vikas Dubey about the UP police raid which led to a violent clash between Dubey's gang and the officers who had gone to arrest him. Sharma has appealed to the top court for transferring the investigation in FIR registered on July 3 at Chaubeypur police station in Kanpur, to the CBI or any other independent investigative agency. The sub-inspector said that even though he and other police personnel have not been named in the FIR, they have been arrested in connection with it. The accused and his wife Vinita Sirohi has also sought protection for their lives, anticipating danger to their life and liberty. "The reasons and facts governing the deaths of the accused persons in the present FIR while being in the custody of the investigative agencies manifestly proves the fact that the life of Sharma is also not safe who is presently lodged in Mati Jail in Kanpur Dehat," the plea stated. Sharma expressed his willingness to cooperate with the investigation, however, he wants all interrogation involving him to take place from Mati Jail. He added that "investigation would not be conducted in a lawful, fair, reasonable and transparent manner" because the offences involved killing of eight police personnel belonging to his department. It is further submitted that "the extrajudicial killings/encounters of other accused in the present FIR shows volumes of the conduct of the police department of State of Uttar Pradesh. Thus, the Petitioners are seeking protection of their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution." The encounters by the investigative agencies appointed by Uttar Pradesh government "is nothing less than the commission of heinous crimes by the agencies who are vested with the responsibility of being the custodians of the law", Sharma wrote in the plea. It further read that "muscularity cannot be usurped constitutionality and the rule of law is supreme in the country and every accused has a right to a fair trial guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution." "The conduct of Uttar Pradesh government and its agencies have proven that no accused is safe even in their custody and such incident of extrajudicial killings of the accused persons have eroded the confidence of the accused as well as the general public from the rule of law and the principles enshrined in the Constitution," the plea stated. (With Agency Inputs)