Samastipur, Feb. 16: Video conferencing system was introduced in the district court yesterday during the hearing of a 19-year-old robbery case.

Samastipur chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Shiva Nand Mishra sat in a server room made inside the courtroom and tried the accused, Ram Binod Rai alias Buddha, present in the server room of Samastipur district jail. The CJM’s court acknowledged that Rai and a witness were produced in the court.

The court asked Rai several questions to which he gave satisfactory replies from the jail. The court considered the case urgent and opted for video conferencing because it had been pending for the past 19 years.

The co-accused in the same case are being tried by the Samastipur sessions judge. Rai was booked under Section 395 (robbery charge) of Indian Penal Code under Tajpur police station in 1993 along with 15 more accused.

The CJM court committed the “court of session” (enabling the accused to be heard before the district and sessions judge) after hearing Rai’s case.

After the court verdict, Rai will be able to seek trial before the sessions judge of the district court. The court usually takes more than a week to announce the “court of session” in cases where video conferencing is not used.

“The introduction of video conferencing in lower judiciary is really an innovative approach with view to modern society,” said senior advocate, Nand Kumar Singh ‘Navin’.