The Supreme Court has ordered a double-murder convict to surrender immediately before jail authorities. A Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan dismissed a plea by Jitendra alias Kalla to stay the Delhi High Court orders, which had later sought to rectify the “typographical errors” and had directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to take steps to take the convict into custody at the earliest. As the Supreme Court did not found any justification to stay the operation of the orders passed by the High Court in February and March to correct the mistake in the judgment, the apex court Bench said the petitioner needs to surrender and make an application for bail which shall be considered on its own merits.
It may be recalled that Jitender alias Kalla, son of Samay Singh and a resident of Wazirpur village in North West Delhi was convicted for killing Anil Bhadana, the then president of Satyawati College Students’ Union, on March 10, 1999. Bhadana was shot dead by Kalla in a marriage function in Keshavpuram area. He then shot Kl Nayyar, the father of Sumit Nayyar who was an eye witness to Bhadana’s murder case.
It was revealed during police investigation that one of the accomplices of Kalla who was also present in the wedding, reportedly informed him about Sumit Nayyar’s statement to the police about the murder. In his bid to eliminate the eye-witness of Bhadana’s murder, Kalla then went to the Mukherjee Nagar residence of Sumit Nayyar and murdered his father Kl Nayyar.
Kalla was arrested by Delhi Police Crime Branch on January, 24, 2000. He had managed to evade police for 11 months after committing twin murders. He again escaped from police custody while he was taken to AIIMS for treatment on July 2004. Kalla had offered drinks to the policemen laced with sedatives and had fled. He was however arrested by a Delhi Police team in the company of a notorious gangster Mustqeem from a hideout in Uttar Pradesh.
Kalla was awarded 30 years in jail by a trial court in the first murder case in 2009 and he was asked to remain in prison for the rest of his life in the second case. Kalla was lucky to have got the benefit of a “typographical error” on December 24, 2016, when a judgment delivered by Justice Sistani and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal allowed the convict to be freed.
The High Court on February 14 admitted the error and rectified its earlier judgment and said that a typographical error was noticed post delivery of the judgment dated December 24, 2016.
Worried over Kalla being released, the families of Bhadana and Nayyar then moved the High Court and pointed out the errors and also apprehended threats to their lives. Bhadana’s father and elder brother, Sumit Nayyar, the eye witness in Bhadana murder case, and the complainant in the case also sought police protection.