Vikas Dubey Encounter 'Not Fake', Bullets Fired In Self-Defence: UP Police Tell Supreme Court

After Vikas Dubey's killing, several allegations are being made on Uttar Pradesh government and police that he was eliminated because he had become a threat for the system.

(File Photo/ Getty)

Kanpur: During a hearing at the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh police has maintained that Kanpur gangster Vikas Dubey and five of his associates were killed in a genuine encounter. In its detailed reply submitted to the top court, the police said that the encounter which broke out on July 10, was not staged, and rather he was killed when he opened fire at the special task force team which was pursuing him when he attempted to escape while being taken to Kanpur from Ujjain. The notorious gangster Vikas Dubey, who was on the run after killing eight policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur on July 3, was arrested on Thursday July 9 at the Mahakal temple. Just a day after his arrest at the Ujjain temple, the history-sheeter Vikas Dubey was shot dead in an encounter by STF on Friday morning in Kanpur. After his encounter killing, several allegations are being made on Uttar Pradesh government and police that he was eliminated because he had become a threat for the system. However, the police insist that he was killed in self-defence after he tried to escape the police custody. Earlier this week on July 15, the Supreme Court sought a response from the UP government and hinted that it could appoint a committee to inquire into the killing of Dubey and his associates. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde said, "We will tell you what we are going to do. This is something we have already done in the Hyderabad matter." However, in an affidavit, the UP government told the court that the facts of the present case are completely and diametrically different from facts emerging in an incident which took place in Hyderabad. The Director General of UP Police in the affidavit said that "this case cannot be compared with the Telangana encounter. The state authorities acted as per law and Supreme Court guidelines. More facts will be filed later if time is given." The state government through a four-point chart chalked out the difference between the Hyderabad encounter case and the shootout that killed Dubey. It is to be noted that the apex court had constituted a three-member commission in December last year to inquire into "circumstances in which" four men accused of raping and killing a veterinary surgeon in Hyderabad were killed in an "encounter" with police.