New Delhi:The Supreme Court said the country’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi could not be protected as her own security guards killed her, while refusing to entertain a plea for shifting gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari lodged in Banda jail outside Uttar Pradesh, especially to a non-BJP ruled state.
A bench comprising justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a plea by Umar Ansari, Mukhtar Ansari’s son, claiming that his father has received reliable information that his life is in grave danger and there is a conspiracy afoot involving several actors within the state establishment to assassinate him in Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh. Umar sought a direction to transfer his father from Banda jail to any jail outside Uttar Pradesh in a state ruled by any party other than the BJP.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Umar Ansari, submitted that the petitioner's father was an accused in the murder case of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai and all the accused were acquitted in the case. Sibal cited the April 15 killings of former MP Atiq Ahmad and his ex-MLA brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf, to point out the threat perception for Ansari, who was shifted from Punjab to Banda jail.
The apex court told Sibal that the order for security has already been provided by the high court. "You know our Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) could not be protected as her own security guards killed her," the bench said. Sibal insisted that there was a genuine threat perception in his case. However, the bench was not convinced.
The apex court allowed the petitioner to amend the prayer in the petition, after additional solicitor general (ASG) K M Nataraj objected to it and asked the court to just look at the plea made in the writ petition. The apex court allowed amendment to the prayer in the writ petition and fixed the matter for consideration on Friday.