Gaya SSP beefs up security for Sachdevas, all eyes now on apex court

GAYA: As the bail granted to Rocky Yadav, accused of murdering 19-yera-old Aditya Sachdeva in Gaya in May this year, has unnerved Aditya’s parents Chand and Shyam Sachdeva, all eyes are now fixed on the Supreme Court as the Bihar government is all set to challenge the bail order in the apex court.
The Sachdevas on Thursday wrote to Gaya SSP Garima Malik, expressing their apprehensions in the wake of the bail granted to Rocky by Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari of the Patna high court on Wednesday.On Friday morning, they met the Gaya SSP and reiterated their apprehensions in person. “I sought to allay the fears of the aggrieved family,” SSP Malik told TOI.
The security provided to Aditya’s parents has been beefed up. In addition to two policemen deputed earlier, three more policemen have been deployed to guard the family at their Swarajpuri Road residence in Gaya. “Now four constables and an ASI-rank police officer will ensure the safety of the couple,” said the SSP.
In the bail order, Justice Ansari said a “bare application” by someone that the accused was intimidating/threatening would not be enough to deprive the bail recipient of his liberty. Credible circumstantial evidence would be required in support of such an application, said the HC order.
Meanwhile, according to Bihar principal additional advocate general Lalit Kishore, preparatory exercise has begun to challenge the bail to Rocky in the apex court. While being hopeful of a favourable order from the SC, the state government’s second most senior law officer, however, did not give the grounds on which Justice Ansari’s order would be challenged in the apex court.
Sources, however, say the state’s appeal may focus on the likely impact of Rocky’s freedom on the witnesses, almost all of whom are very young and, therefore, vulnerable to pressure. Though the witnesses have their statements registered under Section 164 of the CrPC and backing out now was not that easy, they need protection as a free Rocky will loom large over their psyche, legal experts say.
The government’s appeal is also likely to refer to the somewhat genuine apprehensions of Aditya’s family as Rocky’s family profile is formidable with his father being a former Crime Control Act detainu and mother an influential MLC.