New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and five other states on a petition that sought a CBI probe into the murder of children for black magic along with the murder and attack on 10 witnesses in Asaram Bapu rape cases, out of which three have died and one is missing.
Guidelines for a national witness protection program are also to be discussed.
A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court against Godman Asaram and his son Narayan Sai by an eyewitness who claims that he saw Narayan Sai doing tantrik practice on the dead body of a child.
The petition has given tantrik notes as evidence which were used to murder children and which are in Narayan Sai's own handwriting.
Scores of children have gone missing from Asaram's ashrams in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
"It is high time, witnesses are being intimidated, they are being bullied. So, we must do something," the Supreme Court said.
The other petitioners in the PIL include child rape victim's father, eyewitness who escaped an attack, murdered eyewitnesses father, and a journalist who was attacked for writing stories against Asaram.
The petitioners have prayed for a court monitored SIT or a CBI probe as the accused Asaram and Narayan Sai have a very large following in India, estimated at 20 million followers due to which the 'executive' manned by politicians is reluctant to prosecute him for his crimes. The petition also states that according to a news report, several Chief Ministers and former chief ministers are followers of Asaram Bapu.
"Witnesses are being killed one after the other, It is high time we deal with the issue of national witness protection program," said petitioners' lawyer Utsav Singh Bains.
The petitioners have prayed for a court monitored investigation by a SIT or the CBI into attacks on 10 witnesses, murder of three witnesses, into the murder of a child for black magic by Narayan Sai and Asaram in Jhabua Madhya Pradesh, into the mysterious deaths of two children at the Motera Ashram, Gujarat and two more children at Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and for protection of the life of the witnesses, who have been attacked and their families by Central Security Force (BSF, CRPF, CISF or others) and for a National Witness Protection Program.
Jodhpur police arrested Asaram on August 3, 2013 and since then he is in prison. A teenager had accused Asaram of sexually assaulting her during celebration in a village near Jodhpur ashram. The teenager, a resident of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh stayed in the ashram.
