Want to report on court security in 2 weeks, says HC

PATNA: Worried over recent incidents of violence on court premises across Bihar, the Patna high court (HC) on Thursday asked the Bihar government to file a counter affidavit within two weeks on the security arrangements and infrastructure availability in the state’s 58 civil and subdivisional courts.
A division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad passed the order two days after taking suo motu cognizance of a media report on the killing of convicted sharpshooter Abhishek Jha at the entrance of Dhaka subdivisional court in East Champaran on July 16.
According to police, Jha had hatched a conspiracy to escape from police custody. However, bullets fired by his associates hit him instead of policemen.
Earlier, murder convict Guddu Singh was shot dead at Barh subdivisional court in Patna district on September 8, 2017. Two other prisoners received gunshot injuries in the shootout. The HC’s administrative wing had then written to the chief secretary on security arrangements in the state’s courts.
On May 11 last year, notorious criminal Bablu Dubey was gunned down on the court premises at Bettiah. On April 18, 2016, one Khusboo Kumari carried an explosive device to the Chhapra court premises, which exploded and six people were injured. On April 11 the same year, undertrial prisoner Sooraj Kumar was shot dead on the premises of a court at Muzaffarpur.
On July 13, 2016, bombs hidden inside a bike had exploded outside the Sasaram civil court in which one man died and two others, including a policeman, were injured.
On March 16, 2015, undertrial prisoner Jugnu Kumar was shot dead on the Muzaffarpur court premises. The incident took place two months after a suicide bombing on the Ara court premises on January 23 in which three people, including the woman bomber and a police constable, were killed. Two undertrial prisoners escaped taking advantage of the melee after the explosion in which 15 others were injured.
When contacted, ADG (HQ) S K Singhal told TOI security arrangements for courts are done periodically and corrective measures are taken as and when required. “The state police HQ is also monitoring the situation after the Dhaka incident,” he said.