Vikas Dubey encounter: MP home minister says law took its own course, CBI inquiry not
Vikas Dubey encounter: MP home minister says law took its own course, CBI inquiry not needed
M.U.H
10/07/2020499
Madhya Pradesh (MP) home minister Narottam Mishra said matter-of-factly on Friday that law had taken its own course while justifying the encounter killing of dreaded Uttar Pradesh (UP) gangster Vikas Dubey near Kanpur earlier this morning and rubbishing the opposition’s allegations over the alleged extra-judicial incident.
Dubey, who had been absconding for a week on charges of allegedly killing eight UP Police personnel in his native Bikaru village in Kanpur district, including Devendra Mishra, deputy superintendent of police (DySP), was taken into custody in Ujjain, MP, on Thursday morning and handed over to UP Police later at night.
Mishra told media persons on Friday that: “Law has taken its own course (kanoon ne apna kaam kiya hai),”
He brushed aside the opposition’s allegations that Dubey’s death has snuffed out the trail of political patronage.
“On Thursday, the Congress was raising questions, as to how a dreaded criminal like him could be caught alive. A day later, the same party is asking, why was he killed, as many secrets were buried with his death. It shows the Congress’s mindset and its thought process. The party is raising questions against the bravery of our law enforcement agencies.”
Mishra attacked the Congress for its duplicitous remarks and pointed figures for making contradictory statements a day apart.
“On Thursday, the Congress said that both UP and MP are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But the fact of the matter is for all to see. MP Police arrested him (Dubey) and handed him over to UP Police and ensured that the cavalcade safely crossed our state border. Perhaps, those who raised questions on Thursday about his arrest and his death the following day are mourning about the turn of events,” the minister said.
The minister fielded media persons’ barrage of questions and made it amply clear that the slain gangster had time to reveal secrets had he wanted to. “If Dubey wanted to reveal any secret he could have done it. He was in police custody for about 17 hours.”
He also rejected the Congress’s demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the incident. “There is no need for a CBI investigation. What is left for CBI to probe into the incident?” he countered the Congress’s demand.
Mishra took on Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav’s “conspiracy theory” that the car, in which Dubey was being taken to Kanpur, did not overturn, but the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government was saved from being dislodged, as the secrets of political patronage that he enjoyed for all these years was gone with his death in the police encounter.
“Dubey was a member of his own (Yadav) party. Why is he saying this? I have a poster. On Thursday, Dubey’s mother herself said he was in the SP,” Mishra said.
The media persons reminded the minister about the Congress’s claims that he might, too, have a link with Dubey because he was the in-charge of the slain gangster’s native district Kanpur during UP assembly elections in 2017.
Mishra shot back at the “idle Congress leaders”, who, he said, are in the habit of spreading canards via social media.
“Congress leaders have no work these days except tweeting. Nobody is calling Digvijaya Singh to address any public meeting these days. What do you expect him to do except tweeting in such a situation?” he asked.
The minister was categorical about Friday morning’s encounter that led to Dubey’s death. “He was a criminal. He told (the police) about his crimes. You all know about the crime he had committed (in Kanpur). He narrated all this, but said nothing new,” the minister said.
Earlier, Rajya Sabha (RS) member and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had said, “Apprehensions came true. It will not be known, who had links with Dubey. In the past few days, two of his accomplices were killed in encounters with the police. Why there is a similarity in all these three encounters?”
He sought to know why Dubey chose Ujjain’s Mahakal Temple to surrender before MP Police. “Who are the influential people in MP whom he trusted and came to the state to save himself from an encounter with UP Police,” Singh added.
Another Congress leader and RS member Vivek Tankha tweeted, “There was an apprehension of an encounter since the time he was arrested on Thursday. That’s why a petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday itself. It’s a matter of custodial death. The inquiry into the incident should be done under the monitoring of the apex court.”
“Dubey deserved to die. But by hanging by the neck on orders of a court, not at the hands of police, however, justified their anger be. Has the UP government lost faith in its criminal justice delivery system? ... this is absolutely shocking,” he further tweeted.