Chandigarh, April 6
Karnal superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner are in the dock for their failure to provide adequate security to Additional District and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma.
The judge has been apprehending threat to her security after sending to the gallows five convicts in an honour killing case. She has reportedly been receiving threats after the convicts were sentenced to capital punishment for their involvement in the murder of a couple on the diktats of a self-styled community panchayat as they had tied the knot against societal norms.
Available information suggests the Administrative Judge of the Karnal Sessions Division, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, has taken a serious view of the failure of the district administration to provide adequate security cover to the additional sessions judge.
Justice Gill had specifically asked the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police to upgrade the security cover following the threat perception. The directions were issued during Justice Gill’s visit to Karnal for carrying out inspection of the sessions division.
It now transpires that the security cover has still not been adequately increased, despite directions. In fact, the failure of the authorities concerned to act on the issue was brought to Justice Gill’s notice
by the additional sessions judge herself. She reportedly expressed apprehensions regarding her security after meeting Justice Gill in the high court.
It is believed that the additional sessions judge has also shot of a communication to Justice Gill, bringing the facts to his notice. Further action is expected to be initiated in the matter after her complaint is received in black and white.
Karnal district police chief Rakesh Kumar Arya, speaking to the media, said even though the police had not received any formal complaint from the additional district and sessions judge, her security had been been beefed up, both at her residence and the court complex.
Vani Gopal Sharma had pronounced the death sentence after the prosecution termed the case as the “rarest of the rare” and pleaded for capital punishment to the six convicted for killing Manoj (23) and Babli (19) of Karora village in Kaithal district. The two had got married on May 18, 2007.
