The Odisha Government has come out with a ‘Witness Protection Scheme’ to give protection to the court witnesses.
For without such a measure in place, the witnesses often had turned hostile giving serious jolts to sensational criminal trials in courts.
In the light of an approved draft of the Union Government’s Witness Protection Scheme of 2018, the State Government implemented its own scheme that was notified last week and was intimated to the Orissa High Court here subsequently.
The scheme envisages protecting the witnesses based on threat assessments and other measures including change of witnesses’ identities. Installation of security devices at the residence of witnesses and usage of specially-designed courtrooms are the measures as well.
A witness seeking protection under the scheme needs to move an application to the competent authority through a prescribed format. The same can also be made by the family of the witness, his counsel or police officer preferably forwarded through prosecutor.
The scheme provides for a State Witness Protection Fund for meeting the expenses of the scheme and the fund shall be operated by the Home Department. Budgetary allocations, court costs, donations and contributions will fill the coffers of the scheme.