Kanpur ambush: Supreme Court grants bail to wife of aide of slain gangster Vikas Dubey

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Khushi Dubey, widow of Amar Dubey, an aide of slain gangster Vikas Dubey and co-accused in the Bikru massacre.

Eight police personnel, who had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey in Bikru village of Kanpur on July 3, 2020, were killed when the gangster and his men opened fire at them. Khushi Dubey had allegedly taken an active part in the ambush and was accused of exhorting the gangsters to kill the policemen.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and P.S. Narasimha took note of the submissions of senior lawyer Vivek Tankha that she was a minor at the time of offence and regular bail be granted to her as the charge sheet has also been filed in the case.

It said one of the conditions will be that the accused will have to appear before the station house officer (SHO) of the police station concerned once a week besides cooperating in the trial and probe, if any.

Khushi had been married for just seven days when the incident took place and was arrested immediately after by the police.

Her counsel said it is a case of an innocent person at a wrong place at the wrong time as she was married to Amar Dubey only seven days before the incident.

Uttar Pradesh government counsel opposed petitioner's bail and contended that there was an allegation that she participated in the assault on the police.

Khushi had moved the apex court through advocate Sumeer Sodhi challenging the Allahabad High Court order denying her bail.

Granting bail, the apex court noted that the petitioner was 16-17 years at the time of commission of the offence.

The petitioner contended that she was a minor on the date of the incident, and was arrested solely because her husband was named in the FIR, and she had got married a week prior to the date of the incident. Khushi had claimed that she was not a member of the Vikas Dubey gang and her husband was a relative of the gangster.

Her lawyer told the court that more than 100 witnesses were to be examined in the case and it was a fit matter for the grant of bail keeping in mind the allegations against her.

In the high court, Khushi had said that she was declared a juvenile by a board on September 1, 2020, and on the day of the incident, they had gone to Vikas Dubey's house.

Vikas Dubey was killed in an encounter on July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape, police had said.

Amar Dubey and five others were also killed in back to back encounters.