Faced with complaints of witnesses being harassed and targeted in cases of rape involving self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, the Supreme Court has asked States to detail what measures were available in such cases under the witness protection programme.
The apex court asked the petitioners, who are witnesses in cases related to Asaram, to array all States as parties to the petition in order to seek their response on the protection programme for witnesses in heinous and high-profile crimes. The Court's direction came in the wake of the petitioners seeking investigation into instances of attacks and disappearances of witnesses in cases against Asaram.
“Since in this petition, the Court is primarily dealing with the issue pertaining to witness protection programme, it would be appropriate to issue notice to all other States as well, said a Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan in its order passed last week. The Court posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
The states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, who are already party in the case, were given a last opportunity to file their replies to a plea by four key witnesses being tried in Jodhpur. The four witnesses sought SIT probe into the chain of attacks and disappearances of witnesses in cases against the controversial godmen and sought framing of the National Witness Protection guidelines.
On March 24, the Court had asked Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to provide security to the witnesses residing in their jurisdictions. While UP has three such witnesses, Haryana has one. The four petitioners who have approached the Court include Mahinder Chawla, a witness in a rape case allegedly involving Asaram Bapu; Naresh Gupta, the father of a murdered witness; Karamvir Singh, the father of a child rape victim; and Narender Yadav, a journalist who allegedly escaped a murder attempt.
“A very dangerous scenario has emerged which attacks the heart of our constitutional rights and freedoms, where the rich and powerful accused openly subvert the rule of law and pollute the streams of justice by murdering, attacking and threatening witnesses with impunity,” the Bench had then commented.