How Vikas Dubey Got Bail Is Focus Of Probe: Supreme Court's Brief

The death of Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey in an encounter while allegedly trying to escape police custody and the killing of eight cops by him will be investigated by a panel headed by a former Supreme Court judge. The Supreme Court today asked for a report within two months.

Retired judge BS Chauhan will also investigate how Vikas Dubey was out on bail or parole despite 65 criminal cases against him, including murder.

"Letting Dubey out on bail is the most important factor to probe and it led to all these consequences," the Supreme Court said. In the previous hearing, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had told the UP government that it was "appalling" that the gangster had been out of jail for so many years.

Dubey was shot dead on July 10 while he was being brought back to UP after being arrested for the killing of eight policemen at his village a week before.

The police said Dubey took advantage of a car accident, snatched the gun of a policeman and opened fire.

On July 3, eight policemen in a large team that had gone to arrest the gangster were killed in an ambush set up after Dubey was tipped off by a local police inspector. Dubey escaped with many of his men after the massacre.

Speaking to NDTV, Retired Justice BS Chauhan said his brief was to investigate how Dubey got bail or parole. "How it was granted to him... that's the important issue which the panel will be examining as asked by the Court. The Criminal Procedure Code is very strict on these issues, yet he got bail," he said.