SC comes to the rescue of widow

The supreme court was so moved by a widow whose husband was killed in a bomb attack that it dismissed the petition of the accused challenging “retrial” of the case ordered by the Madhya Pradesh high court.

“Her husband was killed in a bomb blast while taking their children to school. Be in her place and imagine the plight,” a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma told the counsel of the accused.

Though the incident occured on February 12, 1998, the widow continues to fight to bring the culprits to book. The widow, who is in her late 30’s, kept sobbing and standing with folded hands as the judges took up the case. She pleaded that the accused’s petition be rejected. “They (the accused) have sent eight to 10 people to frighten me into not pursuing the case. Sir, I cannot keep running around the courts since I have little children to take care of,’’ the hassled woman told the court.

The court rejected the plea of the accused that since they were already acquitted by the sessions court, it was improper on the part of the high court to revert the matter back for “re-examining “ a certain hostile witness.