SC dismisses plea seeking reconstitution of enquiry panel probing Vikas Dubey matter

Responding to a plea filed by the Advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay seeking reconstitution enquiry commission probing the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey, the Apex Court bench had reserved its order after hearing Upadhyay for hours. Today it ruled that it would provide certain safeguards for working of the committee but did not elaborate about them.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court bench led by the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, dismissed a petition seeking reconstitution of Justice BS Chauhan led enquiry commission probing the encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey.

The order has come in response to a plea filed by Advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay who apprehended bias in Justice BS Chauhan due to his connections among politicians and influential people. CJI SA Bobde had pulled up Upadhyay over this asking him should all the judges who have connections be considered bias.

The court had reserved its order after hearing Upadhyay for hours. Today it ruled that it would provide certain safeguards for working of the committee but did not elaborate about them.

The committee was reconstituted once before on Ghanshyam Upadhyay's petition wherein a retired Supreme Court judge was also included along with the people appointed by UP.

On August 11, the bench also comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has said that it would not allow anyone to cast aspersions on the basis of media reports on the retired apex court judge heading the panel.

The verdict came on a plea filed by advocate Ghanshyam Upadhaya seeking re-constitution of the inquiry commission and substituting its members -- Justice (retd) B S Chauhan, former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Uttar Pradesh DGP K L Gupta -- with other former judges of the apex court and retired DGPs.

He had alleged that brother of Justice Chauhan is a legislator in Uttar Pradesh and his daughter is married to a Member of Parliament.

Eight policemen, including DSP Devendra Mishra, were ambushed in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur when they were going to arrest Dubey and fell to bullets fired from rooftops shortly after midnight on July 3.

"Dubey was killed in an encounter in the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area," the police had said.