Sunanda’s son moves high court, disputes BJP leader Swamy’s plea for SIT probe

In his plea, Menon urged the court to restrain Swamy and his lawyers from posting on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, any information on the case and its proceedings.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s stepson Shiv Menon on Saturday moved the Delhi High Court, challenging BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea for a court-monitored CBI-led SIT probe into the death of Sunanda Pushkar.

Sunanda Pushkar, 52, was found dead in a (Hindustan Times)

Menon, son of Pushkar from her earlier marriage, has sought to intervene on the grounds that the BJP leader had no locus in the issue of his mother’s death. The high court will hear Menon’s plea on July 24.

Pushkar, 52, was found dead in a Delhi hotel on January 17, 2014.

In his plea, Menon urged the court to restrain Swamy and his lawyers from posting on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, any information on the case and its proceedings.

He wants the court to issue directions to Swamy and his lawyers not to share information about the investigation in the case with the media and the general public at large.

Menon has also sought an order directing the police to first file its status report in the court and if directed, then only supply it to parties to the case.

Earlier this month, Swamy moved the high court, seeking a court-monitored probe by a multi-disciplinary Special Investigation Team led by CBI into the death of Pushkar.

On Swamy’s plea, the high court had on July 20 directed the Delhi police to place before it the report regarding the status of probe in the case.

The direction was issued by the bench after Delhi Police standing counsel Rahul Mehra had informed the court that the status report of the investigating agency has been given to him in the courtroom so he wants to go through it before placing it on record.

The court had directed the police to supply an advance copy of the status report to Swamy, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the CBI.

Swamy told the court that there has been constant attempt to block the investigation into the death of Pushkar and alleged that the registration of an FIR took almost a year and nothing has happened after that.

Swamy claimed a few days before her death, Pushkar had reportedly called for a press conference and claimed she would be exposing a serious corruption case.

Swamy has sought a time-bound probe in the case, saying “very influential people are involved in the case, leading to attempts to protect them, and the matter has faced a lot of unnecessary delay already”.