NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Bihar government to assess the threat perception and provide security to an advocate, whose father was gunned down in the state's Danapur city in 2020.
The apex court has also directed the state government to extend security cover to the advocate's family members after the assessment.
The direction came on a plea of advocate Subhash Kumar, whose father Harendra Kumar was allegedly killed by Kulshekar Sharma alias Bhola Singh in 2020.
Sharma is accused of killing Harendra Kumar's mother and the lawyer had deposed against him in a trial court during trial, which was pending since 2002.
Sharma was miffed over Harendra Kumar's deposition.
Subhash Kumar, who lost his grandmother and then his father, who was a key witness in the murder case, through lawyer Smarhar Singh, said now the remaining family members are apprehending threat to life from the accused.
He has moved the Supreme Court in both incidents and in his plea said the accused has already killed two of his family members.
In view of the contents of the interim application, "we order and direct the second respondent, State of Bihar, to provide adequate security to the petitioner and his family after assessing the threat perception", said a bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant in an order on March 7.
Earlier, the bench had sought a response from the Bihar government on the plea seeking cancellation of the bail granted by the Patna High Court to the man accused of gunning down the lawyer.
Smarhar Singh had argued that the case pertained to the killing of a lawyer who stood for justice by deposing fearlessly against the man accused of killing his mother.
Subhash Kumar's father Harendra Kumar was shot dead allegedly by Sharma September 8, 2020, when he was on his way to the city civil court for work.
The accused has also been facing trial in the 2001 murder case of the mother of the deceased lawyer.
The Patna High Court, on December 6 last year, passed an "unreasoned order" granting bail to the accused, the plea said.
"The high court only recorded the submission of the accused, and considered the submission as gospel truth and in one line observation said that there is no material collected during the investigation after nine months of custody and granted bail to the respondent," it stated.
The fresh plea, seeking security, said that the family of the victims is facing threat to their lives as the accused evaded arrest for five month after murdering the father of the petitioner lawyer.
It also referred to the third murder of a person, who was also a witness, on February 19 as a reason for seeking a direction to the state police to provide security to them.
"The petitioner is not residing in his parental house fearing that he may meet the same fate by the hands of the accused...the petitioner also a practising advocate has made numerous request/ representations before the competent authority seeking protection, but all in vain as the state has not taken note of his concern," the plea said.