Delhi govt initiates Witness Protection Programme; to have CCTV cameras, police patrolling

New Delhi, July 31: Post Delhi High Court's order for a witness protection programme after the Jessica Lal and Nitish Katara murder cases, the Delhi government on Thursday decided to formulate a policy for the protection of witnesses.

In a statement, the government said,"The policy envisages categorization of witnesses, creation of a witness protection fund, procedure for processing such requests by the competent authority and the types of protection."

The statement said further added that this was done in pursuant to the court order, when the home department had constituted a sub-committee comprising officers from the law department, home department, directorate of prosecution and Delhi Police.

Home Minister Satyendra Jain said,"Delhi is the first state to notify witness protection policy today."

It is said that the witnesses will be divided in three categories, based on the level of threat perception. Based on their categories, several measures can be taken for their protection, which includes regular police patrolling outside the house, temporary change of address or phone number, CCTV outside the house.

OneIndia News