The Jharkhand High Court has directed Home Secretary Rajeev Arun Ekka to improve electronic surveillance at the court premises across the state. The Court, while hearing a PIL registered after taking suo-moto cognizance over the brazen murder of Manpreet Singh, a prime witness of a shootout incident which took place at Sidhgora in Jamshedpur on June 8, also directed the Home Secretary to pay proper attention to installation and maintenance of CCTVs in the court premises.
The bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad took notice of the incident and asked for a response from the state government. Notably, 3 armed assailants shot dead Manpreet Singh, 22, in his house after he returned from the Civil Court following his appearance as a witness in connection with a three-month-old shootout incident. The assailants broke into his house and shot him dead in front of his mother. They pumped several bullets into his body to eliminate him. The Court, after taking suo-moto cognizance into the matter, registered a PIL.
The court has asked the state government to reply whether a witness protection programme exists in the state and if yes, what steps have been taken by the government to protect witnesses.
The direction was given on Wednesday after the Home Secretary turned up before the Court in accordance with the direction given on Tuesday to let the court know about the steps taken by the state for ensuring security of the witnesses.
“The Court has directed the State Government to do the security audit of all the courts on which we said that it will be done within a month,” said Additional Advocate General Sachin Kumar adding that, “We informed the Court that Jharkhand Witness Protection Scheme is in force.”
“We also ensured the Court that separate funds will be provided to all the districts within the next three months,” said the AAG. The State Government, however, is already providing all the protection to the witnesses on-demand basis, he added.