A man serving sentences for two murders in the national capital was erroneously let off due to a typo made by the Delhi High Court.
Soibam Rocky Singh of the Hindustan Times reported that the double-murder convict had been at large since December 24, 2016 after a two-judge bench let the murderer walk free. The court concluded that he had already served more than 16 years in jail and was eligible to walk free after he had appealed a lower court judgment.
The trial court in 2013 had ordered him 30 years of rigorous imprisonment for one of the murders and life imprisonment for the another.
On March 22, the Delhi HC went back on its own judgment saying, “A typographical error was noticed post-delivery of the judgment dated December 24, 2016 in the concluding portion,” and asked the Delhi city police commissioner to take custody of the convict.
The court also asked the police to provide security to all the complainants and eyewitnesses involved in the case.
On March 10, 1999, the convict, Jitender aka Kalla, killed Anil Bhadana, a student leader, at a marriage reception in Delhi. The following day, he killed KL Nayyar - the father of an eyewitness, Sumit - after he did not find Sumit in his house.
Bhadana was killed because he was about to depose against Kalla in another criminal case.
Live Law in February, 2016, reported that the Kerala High Court ruled that a judicial officer had immunity from legal proceedings over wrongdoings committed by them except in exceptional circumstances.
The order read, “A Judge may be liable to be proceeded against for a wrongful act done by him while acting in his personal capacity. He may also become liable to be proceeded against if he misuses his judicial power for personal gains or where the erroneous use of judicial power is shown to be dishonest or mala fide.”