Court: Supreme Court of India.
Citation: CRL. M.P. No.70798/2020.
Case No.: 177 of 2020
Case Type: Writ Petition (Criminal) arising out of Public Interest Litigation.
Petitioner: Ghanshyam Upadhyay.
Respondent(s):
(1) State of Uttar Pradesh
(2) Superintended of Police, Kanpur.
(3) Senior Inspector of Police, Chaubepur Police Station, Kanpur.
(4) Central Bureau of Investigation.
Bench:
- Hon’ble Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde.
- Hon’ble Justice A.S. Bopanna.
- Hon’ble Justice V. Ramsubramanian.
Statutes referred:
- Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1951.
- Constitution of India.
Cases referred:
- Kushum Lata vs Union of India & Ors. (2006) 6 SCC 180.
- Rohit Pandey vs Union of India (2005) 13 SCC 702.
- Ram Krishna Dalmia vs Justice S. R. Tendolkar, 1959 SCR 279.
- State of Karnataka vs Union of India, (1977) 4 SCC 608.
- Sham Kant vs the State of Maharashtra, 1992 Suppl. (2) SCC 521.
- K. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy vs Government of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1996 AP 62.
Facts:
- A large team of Uttar Pradesh Police Officers went to Bikru village in Kanpur on July 2-July 3(midnight) 2020 to arrest history-sheeter and gangster-turned-politician Vikas Dubey in connection with an attempt-to-murder case.
- The complaint was filed by Rahul Tiwari, a resident of Bikru village.
- As per reports, Vikas Dubey had his henchmen (about 50-60 in number) open fire on the police team. The resulting shootout led to the death of eight police officers, including DSP Devendra Mishra, and seven other police personnel were injured. Vikas Dubey managed to escape.
- Hours later, on July 3 2020, Prem Prakash Pandey, Vikas Dubey’s uncle and Atul Dubey, Vikas Dubey’s cousin, were gunned down in an encounter.
- On July 4 2020, Vikas Dubey’s house, shopping mall, expensive cars and vehicles and other movable/immovable properties were razed down with the help of bulldozers, JCB’s, prolain machines, etc. by the U.P. Police.
- On July 5 2020, Dayashankar Agnihotri, a close aid of Vikas Dubey, was arrested. He confesses that Dubey was tipped off about the Police raid by an insider from the police station.
- Three police officers were suspended over alleged suspicious links with Vikas Dubey after a letter written by DSP Mishra alleging links between So, Vinay Tiwari and Vikas Dubey resurfaced on July 6, 2020.
- Three more people, including Vikas Dubey’s domestic help, were arrested on the same day.
- Two aids of Vikas Dubey were shot down in two separate encounters in Etawah and Kanpur on July 9 2020. Prabhat Mishra was killed in the encounter in Kanpur, and Ranveer alias Bauwa Dubey was gunned down in Etawah. Eight more people linked to Vikas Dubey had been arrested.
- Madhya Pradesh Police arrested Vikas Dubey on July 10 2020, from outside of Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. He was subsequently handed over to the UP Police. Vikas Dubey’s wife, son and a domestic help were detained on the same day.
- The vehicle transporting Vikas Dubey from Ujjain to Kanpur turtled just outside Kanpur. Vikas Dubey allegedly snatched a pistol from a policeman and tries to escape police custody.
- Vikas Dubey was shot dead after he allegedly opened fire at the police officers while escaping on July 10.
Issue:
- Were the accused Vikas Dubey and his five aides killed by the UP Police under the guise of an encounter?
- Was the Inquiry Commission, comprising of retired Supreme Court Judge Justice B.S.Chauhan and former Directorate General of Police IPS K.L Gupta, competent to carry out the investigations in the encounters?
Contentions by Parties:
Contentions by the Petitioner-
- Judicial Commission instituted by the State must be scrapped.
- The investigation in the alleged encounter/extra-judicial killings of Vikas Dubey and four of his aides must be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (Respondent No.4).
- In the applications filed in I.A. No. 68270/2020 and I.A. No. 67940/2020, the petitioner raised a few objections with regard to Shri K.L. Gupta being appointed on the Inquiry Committee as he had made a few statements in favour of the police in the interview given to the media.
- The petitioner also contended that Shri K.L.Gupta is related to Shri Mohit Agarwal, the IG of Kanpur Zone.
- The petitioner also raised objections regarding the appointment of Dr Justice B.S Chauhan as the Chairman of the Commission as his brother and relative were legislators from the Bhartiya Janta Party, which ran the Uttar Pradesh Government.
- The petitioner relied solely on an article in “The Wire” dated 29/07/2020 while raising the objections mentioned above.
- The act of razing down the house, shopping mall, cars and other properties was utterly unlawful.
- The UP Police had killed Vikas Dubey under the guise of an encounter.
- The killing of the accused was against the rule of law and a grave violation of human right.
- This act was nothing short of the Talibanisation of the country.
Contentions by the Respondents-
- The Government of Uttar Pradesh had taken serious cognizance of all the events.
- The Government set a Special Investigation Team.
- The Government also constituted a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1951, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Dr Justice B.S. Chauhan. Former Allahabad High Court Judge Shashikant Agarwal and Former Directorate General of Police, IPS K.L. Gupta, were also part of the Commission.
Obiter Dicta:
- The entire basis of the allegations made by the petitioner is the article in “The Wire” dated 29/07/2020. There is no other material on record to confirm the truth of the statements made.
- “Both the Chairman and the Member of the Commission under scrutiny in the case had previously held high Constitutional positions. While making the allegations, the petitioner had based his claims only on the newspaper report, and the manner in which the averments were was completely unacceptable.”
- The allegations made by the petitioner are not sufficient in concluding that they would lead to bias or conflict of interest.
- An Inquiry Committee constituted under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1951 is empowered to investigate, record its findings and make recommendations.
- The recommendations made by the Committee are not enforceable Proprio vigore.
- In K. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy vs Government of Andhra Pradesh, AIR 1996 AP 62, the Court held to sustain a plea of reasonable apprehension of bias- (i) there must be cogent, controverted and undisputed material and (ii) the court cannot go by vague, whimsical and capricious suspicion.
Judgement:
- Allegations made by the petitioner against the Members of the Inquiry Commission were rejected outright.
- The Inquiry Commission formed by the State was allowed to carry out the investigations in the encounters.
Rationale:
- The Court, in several cases, had held that newspaper article with no other proof had no evidentiary value.
- There was no indication whatsoever as to the nature of influence the relatives of the Chairman and the Member of the Commission would exert and as to whether they were in a dominant position.
- The enquiry by the Commission would be held in the public domain, and the petitioner was therein granted liberty of participating in it. The report of the investigation was ordered to be filed in the petitions which were filed before the court. Therefore, there would be sufficient safeguard to the manner in which the enquiry was held.
Conclusion:
- The three-member Inquiry Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) B.S. Chauhan found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Uttar Pradesh Police in the encounters of gangster Vikas Dubey and his five associates in July 2019.
- The Inquiry Commission submitted its findings to the State Government on April 19 2020.
BY MIHIR POOJARY