Witness Protection Laws - Immediate Need for an Effective Criminal Justice Administration

Abstract:     
It is a common scene in a movie where the villain detains the family members of the witness so as to stop him to depose. At times, offers money for not deposing or deposing in false. Sometimes, it is shown that after a deposition, the witness is killed by the survivors of gang or even in a situation villain comes out of jail after completion of his sentence and takes revenge. These are not only the instances shown in the Bollywood movies, but can be witnessed in real life, for example Zaheera Sheikh, Shayan Munshi, Sateyndra Dubey, and others. Witnesses play a vital role in prosecution of a criminal case. In absence of witnesses, no accused can be brought to conviction. There are various factors which make a witness to an incident reluctant to depose or to depose falsely or irrelevantly (hostile witness). Least level of protection afforded to witnesses is one of the major reasons for this. The present paper discusses the issue of protection of witnesses in Criminal Justice Administration

Keywords: witness, hostile witness, manusmriti, anonymity

JEL Classification: L19, L22

working papers series