The court noted that the convict “acted like an obdurate criminal by continuously texting threatening messages to the victim for extortion”. A Delhi court has sentenced a former court staffer for threatening to kill a judge’s children to five years’ imprisonment. The court observed that creating fear in the mind of a judge affects the justice dispensation system and was an unpardonable act.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Pankaj Sharma sentenced the convict, Shiv Shankar Prasad, who pleaded for leniency, while submitting that he had faced “humiliation and indignity in society” as he had lost his job. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the convict, who was found guilty under IPC Sections 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).
The prosecution argued that the convict “became a monster” and indulged in a “gruesome crime” by putting the judge in fear for a considerable amount of time.
While handing out the sentence, the court said, “Creating fear in the mind of the judge affects his/her ability to function properly which directly affects the justice dispensation system and the same is an unpardonable act. The crime of the convict is an egregious act, which has affected the stream of justice and also created trust deficit among judges and support staff. The crime committed by convict is required to be dealt with in a manner which could prevent recurrence of such incidents in future.”
The convict had, at the time, worked as an Ahlmad and got to know about some family-related issues that the judge was facing and used that to extort her. He was later arrested by the Special Cell, which investigated the case in 2007 when the Ahlmad was 27 years old.
The court noted that the convict “acted like an obdurate criminal by continuously texting threatening messages to the victim for extortion”.
It further stressed that “workplace trust plays an important role” and the convict “misused that very trust by becoming aware of the vulnerability of his boss and made a sinister plan to extort money from her by putting her in fear of death of her children”.
The court said “the tone and tenor of the messages were enough to raise an alarm to her (the judge) which had caused great fear, anguish and agony in her mind”.
“Being the mother of two children, she would have naturally got threatened… The terror created by the convict had certainly disturbed her peace of mind and even the tempo of doing her official duties,” the court said.
It said the convict not only betrayed the judge’s trust but also shattered the trust “which an officer reposes with his/her support staff”.
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