The Capital, on Thursday, became the first State in the country to begin proceedings for the creation of a Witness Protection Programme, on the lines of similar schemes that exist in several other countries across the world. Legal experts contend the policy had been in demand since the Jessica Lal murder in 1999.
Understood to be Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s pet project, the formulation of the Delhi Witness Protection Scheme, 2015, according to a source, was ironically, kick-started by former Delhi Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar who is currently out on bail in a case related to his allegedly fake educational degrees. “It has been decided to have a comprehensive policy for protecting witnesses in criminal cases. Delhi will be the first state to have such a policy,” said a senior government official.
According to the official, the policy envisaged the categorisation of witnesses, the creation of a witness protection fund, procedure of processing requests for protection by witnesses by a competent authority and the categorisation of kinds of protection that can be offered.
A note from the Chief Minister’s office regarding the policy stated that the Delhi Legal Services Authorities (DLSA) had been designated as a competent authority to determine whether a witness required police protection as per directions issued by the Delhi High Court in relation to a writ petition filed by Neelam Katara.
Ms. Katara’s son, Nitish, had been murdered by Vikas Yadav for his romantic association with his sister, Bharti. The High Court had also directed the State to formulate a policy for the creation of a witness protection programme on May 22, 2013.
“A sub-committee had been created by the Home Department for the formulation of guidelines governing the programme pursuant to the new court order,” the official added.
Delhi will be the first in India to come up with such a scheme
