Bikru massacre: SC grants bail to Khushi Dubey

Lucknow, Jan 4 The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Khushi Dubey, the wife of Amar Dubey a co-accused in the Bikru massacre and a close aide of slain gangster Vikas Dubey.

Eight police personnel who had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey on July 3, 2020, were killed when the gangster and his men opened fire at them.

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 Khushi Dubey 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.

Khushi Dubey was accused of exhorting the armed co-accused of gangster Vikas Dubey to kill the policemen.

The bench 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.

She is accused of pointing out the presence of policemen who had gone to arrest Vikas Dubey to her co-accused and that allegedly led to the massacre of the men in uniform.

Khushi Dubey's 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.

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.

Khushi Dubey's 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.

The court took note of the fact that the accused was 16 years of age at the time of commission of the offence and granted bail saying the trial court would be setting the terms for her release.

In 2021, the top court had agreed to hear Khushi Dubey's bail plea.