The Supreme Court today gave the last opportunity to five states to file their replies on a plea seeking CBI probe into the mysterious death of children and attacks on ten witnesses in the Asaram Bapu rape cases.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan granted six weeks to Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments to file responses in the matter.
During the hearing, advocate Utsav Singh Bains, appearing for four witnesses in cases against the spirtual leader, pointed out that the state governments had not filed their replies to the writ petition.
The apex court had on March 24 questioned the state governments' failure to provide security to the witnesses and implementation of the protection programme.
The petitioners have sought a SIT probe into the instances of attacks and disappearances of the witnesses in the cases against Asaram and pleaded for expeditious framing of the national witness protection guidelines.
The court had on November 18 last year issued notice to the Centre and the five states and said it was high time that the issue of witness protection needs to be dealt with.
The four petitioners -- Mahinder Chawla, a witness in a rape case involving Asaram, Naresh Gupta, the father of a murdered witness, Karamvir Singh, the father of a child rape victim, and Narender Yadav, a journalist who allegedly escaped a murder attempt-- had filed the plea seeking CBI probe into the matters.
"A very dangerous scenario has emerged, which attacks the heart of our constitutional rights and freedom, where the rich and powerful accused openly subvert the rule of law and pollute the streams of justice by murdering, attacking and threatening witnesses with impunity.
"Recently, several witnesses in the Asaram Bapu and Narayan Sai rape cases were killed, attacked or went missing under mysterious circumstances," the plea said.
The petitioners have also sought directions from the court to the Centre and states for protection by central forces to the witnesses who have been attacked.
The petition also said that a CBI probe was needed on the attacks on the witnesses and into "the murder of a child by black magic by Narayan Sai and Asaram in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, into the mysterious deaths of two children at the Motera Ashram of Gujarat and two more children at Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh".
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