Govt introduces witness protection scheme in J&K

To meet the expenses of the “witness protection scheme”-2018, Jammu and Kashmir administration has created a corpus fund to be known as the “witness protection fund” for meeting.

In an order issued here on Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir Home Department has ordered creation of the “witness protection fund” for meeting expenses incurred on the implementation of the “witness protection order(s) passed by the competent authority and related expenditure.

Sharing details, official sources said that the first ever reference to Witness Protection came to fore in 14th Report of Law Commission of India in 1958.

The 4th National Police Commission Report 1980 also observed “Prosecution witnesses turn hostile because of pressure from the accused and there is need of regulation to check manipulation of witnesses”.

The funds are to be used for the installation of the security devices in the house of witness, escort to and from the court and provision of government vehicles or state funded conveyance for the date of hearing, close protection and regular patrolling around the witness’s house, temporary change of house of the witness to conceal his identity.

They said that during the course of investigation or trial of any offence an application seeking identity protection can be filled in the prescribed form before the Competent Authority through its member secretary. Upon receipt of the application, the Member Secretary of the Competent Authority shall call for Threat Analyst Report. The Competent Authority shall examine the witness. Once the Competent Authority pass the order of protection of identity of the witness, it shall be the responsibility of the Witness Protection Cell to ensure the protection of the identity of the witness.

The move comes after the J&K government ordered that the witness protection scheme shall be deemed come into force in UT from December 5, 2018.

The fund shall be operated by the director general of police, who shall also initiate proceedings for recovery of the expenditure incurred from the witness protection fund in cases of false complaint(s), the order states.
The scheme identifies a series of measures to be adopted to safeguard witnesses and their family members from intimidation and threats against their lives, reputation and property.

The protection will be on the basis of an order passed by a standing committee on the basis of ‘threat analysis reports’ that police submit to them.

The standing committee in each district would be headed by district and sessions and the police head in the district would be its member and head of the prosecution in the district as member secretary.

In another order, the government ordered that the deputy director(s) prosecution shall be member secretaries of the standing committees for the districts under their charge as provided under clause (2) (C) of the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018.

As per the scheme, the witness protection measures shall be proportionate to the threat and shall be for a specific duration not exceeding three months at a time.