- (1.) This Court on 23.09.2016, while entertaining the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, recorded as follows:- "It is further submitted by Mr. Panday that if the investigation and trial takes place in the Siwan District in the State of Bihar, the respondent nos. 3 and 4 and the other accused persons will terrorise the witnesses as a consequence of which the petitioner would not get any justice and remain a constant victim searching for solace. On a perusal of the petition, it is prima facie discernible that the petitioner who lives with two small children, after losing her husband and the developments that have taken place in the District Siwan, is in a state of continuous fear. It has been said that courage is the mother of all virtues and a man with courage can always sustain his or her dignity. But, sometimes, situations are created by certain powerful protagonists which instill fear in the mind of a citizen and that fear has the potentiality to usher in atrophy to the sense of dignity. It is also asserted in the petition that in the obtaining fact situation, this Court may direct for giving her protection by the competent authority failing which it is difficult to fathom, what kind of danger shall visit her. Issue notice returnable within two weeks. A copy of the petition be served on Mr. Gopal Singh, learned standing counsel for the State of Bihar who shall obtain instructions from respondent nos.1 and 2. As far as respondents 3 and 4 are concerned, Mr. Gopal Singh shall instruct the respondent no.1, the Home Secretary of the State of Bihar to see to it that the respondent nos.3 and 4 are served dasti. As far as respondent no.2 is concerned, a copy be served on Mr. Gopal singh, apart from dasti. As far as the CBI is concerned, let a copy of the petition be served on Mr. P.K. Dey, learned counsel, who ordinarily appears for CBI so that he can take instructions. In course of hearing, Mr. Pandaya submitted that the CBI has not commenced the investigation. In view of that, we direct that the CBI may proceed with the investigation but not finalize it and shall file the status report before this Court on 17.10.2016. The Superintendent of Police, Siwan District shall provide police protection to the petitioner and her family. The concerned Station House Officer of Nagar Thana shall also see that the protection is given. We have directed both the Superintendent of Police and the Station House Officer so that the petitioner, a lady in distress, shall feel protected."
(2.) Be it noted, on that day, a statement was made by Mr. Kisley Pandey, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner that Mohammad Kaif had surrendered to custody on 21.09.2016 and the other accused Mohammad Javed was still absconding. An affidavit has been filed by the State of Bihar contending, inter alia, that the charge sheet has been filed against six accused persons including both the abovenamed persons on 20.08.2016.
(3.) As per our earlier order, a status report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been filed. The relevant part of the report reads as under :- "5. That immediately after registration of the Case by CBI, a team headed by SP, CBI along with Chief IO, Assistant IO and other support staff reached Siwan on 16.09.2016 and has been comping there for the purposes of expeditious Investigation. 6. That the CBI team inspected the scene of crime and other relevant places in attendance of the IOs of the local police and also discussed the details of the case and collected relevant information. 7. That the CBI team collected the case files / records from local police. Scrutiny of the records revealed that Siwan Police had filed charge sheet against six accused persons namely Azaharuddin Beig @ Laddan Miyan, Rohit Kumr Soni, Vijay Kumar Gupta, Rajesh Kumar, Sonu Kumar Gupta and Rishu Kumar Jaiswal in the court of CJM, Siwan on 20.08.2016. However, they had kept open further investigation in the matter. 8. That scrutiny of the local police records also revealed that the suspect Sonu Kumar Soni, Mohammad Kaif @ Bunty, Javed and Jimmy were absconding after the registration of case by local police. 9. That the CBI after collecting the records had taken following steps:- (i) The local police records which were illegible were typed clearly. (ii) The exhibits including arms and ammunition, clothes of the deceased, mobile instruments of the accused persons and deceased were collected. The mobile instruments were sent to the expert for retrieving the data including deleted data. (iii) CFSL team from New Delhi were called and scene of crime was recreated with the help of local police IOs and the persons who had seen the body and the place of occurrence. (iv) Interaction with the Doctors who had conducted Postmortem of the deceased was made in presence of CFSL expert. (v) Call details of the accused, suspect, deceased and other relevant person were collected which are under scrutiny. (vi) The hard disk of computer being used by the deceased was collected and sent to the expert to find any relevant material to the case. (vii) Around 40 witnesses were examined which included the complaint and his family members, IOs associated with the case, Doctors who conducted post morten, Persons connnected with print media and others to know the details and motive for killing the deceased. (viii) So far two suspect / accused Sonu Kumar Soni and Mohammad Kaif @ Bunty were taken on police remand and interrogated in depth. (ix) The accused Azaharuddin Beig @ Laddan Miyan was examined in Judicial Custody in Central Jail Gaya. (x) The suspect Javed has surrendered in other case and will soon be examined in the instant case." ;