BENGALURU: “Waiting for the right time, the accused had chosen the lunch hour as no staffers were inside the chamber. He came and gave some papers to divert my attention. Just before I turned my eyeballs to give back the papers after going through them, he was taking out a knife from his pocket. He jumped on my table and attempted to stab me directly in the chest. Had I not held his hand, it would have pierced my heart, resulting in killing me on the spot...” T his was how former High Court judge, Justice P Vishwanath Shetty, recollected the horror before the city civil and sessions court on Saturday, while standing in the witness box for over 75 minutes.
An attempt on Justice Shetty’s life was made on March 7, 2018, when he was the Lokayukta. Earlier, the CCTV footage of the Lokayukta office which captured the entire incident, was viewed by Judge SN Hegde, LV Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, in the presence of accused Tejraj Sharma. Justice Shetty deposed that the accused had planned and come prepared to eliminate him, looking at the way the accused acted even after the murder bid failed.
“I suffered multiple injuries. I had to get admitted to the hospital for a week and then rest for another 50 days,” he narrated. “When I tightly held his right hand holding the knife, our staffer Palani immediately came to my rescue. But the accused scared him away by flashing the knife. The accused did not go back till the gunman took out the gun,” said Justice Shetty. When the counsel of the accused said the knife is used to cut vegetables Justice Shetty replied that the knife can also be used to take the life of a person.