Threat to judge: SC stays remission in kidnap case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the Haryana government and the Punjab and Haryana High Court from releasing on remission the convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for a 2008 kidnapping for ransom, after the victim, now a serving judge in Delhi, complained of persistent and escalating threats from the convicts and their associates.

- Utkarsh Anand

‘A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi ordered that the convicts shall not be released on remission until further orders of the court. The bench also issued notices to the Union government and the governments of Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat on Snehil Sharma’s petition, which raised serious concerns about victim safety, witness protection and systemic gaps in parole and remission frameworks for heinous offences.

The case is unusual and striking. Sharma, who was kidnapped as a minor in March 2008, has since risen through the ranks of the justice system and is currently posted as a Judicial Magistrate First Class in Delhi. Seventeen years after the crime, he approached the Supreme Court not as an accused or a litigant, but as a victim seeking protection and arguing that the criminal justice system has failed to shield him and his family.