The SC asked the witnessess in Nithari serial killings to approach the trial court for protection if and when they fear threat to their lives.
The Supreme Court today asked the witnessess in Nithari serial killings to approach the trial court for protection if and when they fear threat to their lives from any quarter.
A bench of Justices DK Jain and TS Thakur said the trial court shall take expeditious steps to grant the protection to the witness whenever such a request is made.
The apex court passed the direction while disposing off a petition filed by Bandana Sarkar who alleged that her husband Jatin Sarkar, a key witness in the grisly killings, was eliminated at the behest of top CBI officials acting in connivance with Moninder Singh Pandher, the co-accused.
The bench, however, refused to entertain the allegations of the counsel BP Singh Dhakray that the then CBI director Vijay Shankar and his officials were responsible for Jatin Sarkar's killings.
"Why should the CBI Director do it? Is any of the accused related to the CBI Director?" the bench said while declining to entertain further arguments on the issue.
The UP police had earlier in an affidavit told the Supreme court that Jatin Sarkar, a key witness in Nithari killings who died under mysterious circumstances two years ago, had never lodged a complaint with it on the alleged threat to his life from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)officials.
Jatin Sarkar, whose daughter Pinki was one of the several victims raped and murdered in the serial killings, was found dead on September 1, 2007, at a local pond in Behrampur village of Murshidabad district in West Bengal.
Bandana had moved the apex court seeking prosecution of the CBI officials for allegedly carrying out the murder of her husband to shield Pandher, one of the two key accused in the 2006 serial killings in UP's Noida district.
CBI had also in a separate affidavit earlier categorically denied the charge.
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