Jharkhand HC seeks report from government on court shootout

RANCHI: Taking strict note of the recent death of a person in a shootout at Deoghar civil court, the Jharkhand high court took suo motu cognizance of the matter on Wednesday and ordered the state government to present a report.
Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad initiated the suo motu PIL and observed that the law and order situation in the state has deteriorated. Murders are being committed everyday and the crime graph has surged very high, the judges observed.
The bench has also ordered a security audit of the Deoghar civil court to assess the security and latches on the premises. It is not for the first time that a shootout has occurred on a court premises. Similar incidents have occurred earlier in Hazaribag and Jamshedpur.
PILs have also been filed questioning the security on the court premises and of lawyers and litigants at large. The Jharkhand State Bar Council has also filed a PIL in this regard.
On June 18, some bike-borne miscreants entered the Deoghar court campus and shot a criminal in broad daylight. The assailants fled from the court while their victim lay in a pool of blood. The deceased was identified as Amit Kumar Singh, a criminal from Bihar who was brought to court from jail for his production in a case.
A pistol was also recovered from the crime scene while the police have already begun investigation into the case.