Former Chaubeypur sub-inspector KK Sharma, arrested on the charge of conspiring with gangster Vikas Dubey and his henchmen for the attack on the police team during a failed raid at Kanpur's Bikru village on July 3, moved the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking protection of his life.
Citing the spate of encounters in which the gangster and his aides were killed, Sharma said he apprehends danger to his life in police custody. He had earlier asked for a court-monitored SIT probe in the case.
The plea, filed through his wife Vinita Sirohi, apprehended that her husband Krishn Kumar Sharma may be eliminated through "illegal and unconstitutional means".
Kanpur's Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar P had said that Sharma and suspended Chaubeypur station officer Vinay Tiwari had leaked information about the raid to Dubey, following which they were suspended on July 5.
Kanpur Inspector General Mohit Agarwal added the two police officers were present in Bikru village at the time of the raid and they ran away as the firing began.
Sharma, in his plea filed before the apex court, said he was arrested on the ground that he had informed the accused persons about the police raid at Bikru village.
Challenging the claim, Sharma, who is currently in jail, said he was directed by his in-charge Vinay Tiwari, Station Officer of the Chaubeypur police station, to remain at the police station.
Sharma said Tiwari told him in the night that he was going in a team to arrest a criminal as per instructions to him on the phone, with further instructions to conduct a cross-checking at the GT crossing road.
"It is further stated that the contents of the alleged General Diary Details itself is a proof and speaks volumes of the lies of the arresting of Petitioner no. 1 (Sharma) showing that he was trying to run away whereas it is a matter of record that Petitioner no. 1 was living in the quarters situated within the premise of the police station," the plea said.
Filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, the petition also alleged that death of an accused namely Amar Dubey in an encounter in Maudaha in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh took place under "suspicious circumstances".
"It is submitted that the extra judicial killings of all of the above accused shows plentiful the conduct and modus operandi of all the investigative agencies responsible for investigation of the present FIR. It is clearly evident that the institutions tasked with the protection of law and order in the state have taken law into their own hands and have been killing the accused persons as soon as arresting such persons," the plea said.
The petition has sought protection of Sharma's life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution besides transfer of the investigation to an independent investigative agency.
Dubey was killed in an encounter on Friday after a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur reportedly met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in the Bhauti area. Four policemen, including an inspector posted in Nawabganj, were injured in the accident, Agarwal said.
Earlier, five members of Dubey gang were killed in separate encounters.
While on July 3, two of his associates, Prem Prakash Pandey and Atul Dubey, were killed by police in an encounter in Kanpur, on July 8 the police killed another aide, Amar Dubey, who carried a reward of Rs 50,000, in Maudaha village in Hamirpur district.
On July 9, two more aides of gangster Vikas Dubey, wanted in connection with the Kanpur ambush, were killed in separate encounters in Kanpur and Etawah districts.
While Kartikeya alias Prabhat was killed in Kanpur when he tried to flee from police custody, another aide of Vikas Dubey, Praveen alias Bauwa Dubey, was shot dead in an encounter in Etawah.
Kartikeya, who was arrested from Faridabad on Wednesday, was being brought to Kanpur on transit remand when he snatched the pistol of a policeman and tried to flee.
Vikas Dubey, who was carrying a reward of Rs five lakh on information leading to his arrest, was arrested from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday.
(With inputs from PTI)
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