After setting up a three-members Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the Kanpur incidents related to slain gangster Vikas Dubey and his alleged nexus on Saturday, the Yogi  Adityanath government on Sunday announced to set up a judicial commission headed by a retired judge of High Court to look into his ‘encounter’ with the sleuths of the Special Task Force.

According to an official communiqué on Sunday, Justice (Retired) Shashi Kant Agarwal will probe into all the issues related to July 2-3 ambush of eight  policemen in Bikru village  and later the encounter of most wanted criminal Vikas Dubey.

The commission would also suggest measures to avert any similar incident in future, particularly due to police-criminal unholy nexus.

The notification for constitution of the judicial commission was issued under Section 3 of the Judicial Commission Act, 1952.

The single member judicial commission of Justice (Retd.) Shashi Kant Agarwal will have office in Kanpur and the government has given two months’ time to complete the investigation. As per the terms of reference of the judicial commission, it will probe into the July 2-3  Bikru ambush in which eight policemen were killed and later the July 10 encounter in Kanpur in which Vikas Dubey was eliminated while trying to flee from police custody.

The judicial commission will also investigate the criminal-police nexus and other lapses of the authorities in connection with Vikas Dubey.

Besides, the commission is also empowered to look into any aspects which arise during course of investigation along with any further directions given by the government in this regard.

On Saturday, the UP government had set up a 3-member SIT headed by senior IAS officer Sanjay R Bhoosreddy with ADG Hariram Sharma and DIG J Ravindra Gaud as its members. The SIT has already started investigation and visited Bikru village in Kanpur on Sunday.

The setting up of a SIT and then a judicial commission by the  UP government seems to be an effort to prevent the Supreme Court to order a CBI probe into the encounter of Vikas Dubey, as demanded by several opposition leaders and the PILs filed in the apex court. A bunch of PILs demanding CBI probe into the encounter could be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.