Arvind Kejriwal shocked at public prosecutor for skipping hearings in journalist Soumya Vishwanathan’s case

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed shock that the public prosecutor was skipping the hearings and directed CS Vijay Kumar Dev to issue them show cause notice.

A day after the father of murdered journalist Soumya Vishwanathan wrote to the Delhi chief minister complaining about the slow pace of the ongoing trial, Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday directed his chief secretary to “immediately” appoint a special public prosecutor and send a show cause notice to the current public prosecutor.

The bereaved parents of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan , who was shot dead more than 10 years ago, knocked at the door of the chief minister (HT File Photo)

Kejriwal said he had taken a “strong exception” to reports about the public prosecutor’s “absence” in the last few days of the court hearing. “It is absolutely shocking,” the CM said in a statement released on Thursday.

Soumya’s mother, Madhvi, welcomed the development saying she was “happy about it”. “I now hope the trial is completed soon,” said Madhvi.

On Wednesday, Soumya’s father, MK Vishwanathan, had written to Kejriwal about the slow pace of the decade-long ongoing trial and had particularly highlighted the “quality of efforts” put in by the public prosecutor, RK Gurjar.

The father had blamed Gurjar of being “unresponsive” in sharing updates with the family and had requested for a special public prosecutor. “He (Gurjar), once again, was absent from the court on the date of the last hearing on February 2,” he wrote.

Responding to Vishwanathan’s letter on Wednesday, Gurjar had defended himself saying he was overloaded as he was handling over 450 cases, which included the murder of businessman Ponty Chaddha. He had gone on to call it a “super speedy trial” given how loaded the trial courts already are.

But Gurjar had said he wasn’t liable to brief Soumya’s family about the developments, before adding that he would thenceforth ask his subordinates to keep them updated.

The chief minister has asked that a show cause notice be “immediately” issued to the public prosecutor “skipping hearings and not taking the duty seriously”. Gurjar said he couldn’t attend the court hearing on February 2 as he was unwell.

While the trial has been going on for the last 10 years, the trigger for the developments was a petition in High Court by one of the murder accused, Baljeet Singh Malik, who sought a speedy trial and a compensation of ₹1 crore for the prolonged delay in the trial.

Malik is already convicted and serving a life sentence for the murder of Jigisha Ghosh, another Delhi woman who was killed just six months after Soumya in 2008.

While Soumya’s mother had found his demand for a compensation “laughable”, she had supported his demand for a speedy trial in the hope that it may “inadvertently end up benefiting everyone”.