Supreme Court grants seven days to Vikas Dubey's wife to surrender

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Richa Dubey, wife of slain gangster Vikas Dubey of Bikru, Kanpur, to surrender before the trial court in seven days to seek regular bail.

A Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi dismissed the plea of Richa Dubey seeking direction to quash proceedings registered against her for allegedly using her house help's SIM card without his will. "We observe that the petitioner (Richa Dubey) is entitled to raise all pleas and contentions at the time of arguments on framing of charge, which arguments will be considered in accordance with the law without being influenced by the observations made in the impugned order," stated the order of the top court.

"The petitioner may file an application for regular bail and is given 7 days to surrender. The application for bail will be considered on merits and in accordance with the law. Recording the aforesaid, the Special Leave Petition is dismissed," it further stated.

Richa Dubey had moved the top court challenging Allahabad High Court's October 1 order refusing to quash entire criminal proceedings in a case registered against her under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (Cheating) of IPC for allegedly using her house help's SIM card without his will.

The Bench took note of the submission of senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Richa, that she would raise all contentions before the trial court at the stage of arguments on framing of charge.

Khurshid told the Bench that she was granted anticipatory bail till the filing of the chargesheet and as the chargesheet has been filed, Dubey would be filing an application for regular bail and may be granted 10 days time to surrender.

In the High Court, Richa had sought direction to quash FIR registered against her in the case and proceeding arising therefrom.

Vikas Dubey, a gangster who is said to be the mastermind behind the killing of eight policemen in Kanpur's infamous Bikru encounter, was shot dead by the UP Police as he allegedly tried to flee from their custody.

As per the case of the prosecution, Richa Dubey was using a SIM Card which was originally in the name of one Mahesh, the house help of Vikas Dubey and Richa Dubey, against his will.

Mahesh, in his statement registered under Section 161 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), had said that his mobile SIM card was being used by Richa Dubey since 2017 against his will.