Vikas Dubey, a much-dreaded criminal, succumbed to his fate this morning under the UP police custody. He has been allegedly killed in an ‘encounter’ when the car carrying him to Kanpur toppled. As he tried to escape after snatching a weapon from the police personnel, he got killed. There were media folks following the vehicle but they were stopped at a checking point by the police; this was followed by the alleged accident resulting in the ‘encounter.’ Not to mention, some reports say that the car carrying him was allegedly a Tata Safari, but the car which toppled is a TUV 300.
Waking up to this news in the morning was not surprising; however, just the sheer banality of the incident and the fact that almost everyone had seen it coming paint a worrisome picture of our system. This is not the first time when the Indian Police have undermined the Indian constitution, more so in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is quite infamous for its extra-judicial killings.
The criminal-politico nexus which could have brought into light many big names and secrets is not the only source of motivation in such cases. The growing public support for ‘instant justice’ even at the cost of laws has a big role to play too. The celebration of extra-judicial killings feeds the unhealthy cycle of the same and ultimately undermines the Indian criminal justice system.
What people don’t realise is that Vikas Dubey was one of the many puppets used by the politicians to further their agenda to remain in power and that we have lost an opportunity to catch many others who have had links with him in the past. He was active since 1991, and it was a collective failure of all the governments which came into power ever since. I believe there were vested interests of many politicians and influential figures which insulated him from getting convicted all these years. Unsurprisingly, these vested interests in a way caused his death today as he was nothing more than a pawn for these megalomaniacs, only to be killed when posed a threat to the king.
Now, let’s see if the Supreme Court takes a suo moto cognizance of the case. It should order a CBI enquiry under its supervision and if there is any conspiracy behind this ‘encounter,’ all the accomplices should be tried, and if found guilty, convicted.