Jamshedpur murder: Jharkhand High Court takes suo moto cognizance of Manpreet’s murder

Asks whether witness protection programme exists in state

HC directs state govt to file reply on affidavit by June 27

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, June 9: The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday took suo moto cognizance of the brazen murder of shootout case witness Manpreet Singh in Sidhgora.

The bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad took notice of the incident and asked for a response from the state government.

The court has asked the state government to reply whether a witness protection programme exists in the state and if yes, what steps have been taken by the government to protect witnesses. The government has been asked to file its reply through affidavit by June 27, sources said.

Three armed assailants shot dead Manpreet Singh, 22, in his house at Post Office Road in Shiv Singh Bagan area of Sidhgora around 4.30 pm yesterday. Manpreet had returned from the Civil Court after appearing as a witness in connection with a three month old shootout incident. He was about to go back to Punjab where he pursued higher education. The assailants broke into his house and shot him dead in front of his mother. They pumped several bullets into his body to eliminate him.

The sensational incident evoked sharp criticism from Sikh community as many citizens blamed police for the lawlessness. SSP Jamshedpur Dr M Tamil Vanan visited the residence of the deceased and spoke to the aggrieved family members. He assured to arrest the culprits very soon.

Sikh community members have given a 24 hour ultimatum to city police for arresting Manpreet’s killers. Manpreet’s kin have also refused to cremate the deceased till the culprits are arrested. But so far police are still searching for the killers.

Sidhgora police have registered an FIR against Rahul Singh, Akshay Singh, Puran Choudhary, Gaurav Gupta and Naveen on the information of Soni Kaur, Manpreet’s mother.