Delhi HC seeks Subramanian Swamy’s response to plea by Sunanda Pushkar’s son
Subramanian Swamy had earlier moved the high court seeking a court-monitored probe by a multi-disciplinary Special Investigation Team led by CBI into the death of Sunanda Pushkar.
The Delhi High Court on Monday said “it’s a matter of concern” that chargesheet has not been filed for three and half years in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
Pushkar, 52, was found dead in a Delhi hotel on January 17, 2014.
A bench of Justice GS Sistani and Justice Chander Shekhar issued notice to Delhi Police on a petition by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s stepson Shiv Menon seeking him to be made a party in a plea by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for a court-monitored CBI-led SIT probe into the death of Sunanda Pushkar.
The bench also sought response from Swamy on plea of Menon, son of Pushkar from her earlier marriage, seeking to intervene on the grounds that the BJP leader had no locus in the issue of his mother’s death.
“We are asking you a simple question. How are you affected by this prayer. The (Swamy’s) prayer is for proper inquiry into the death of this person,” the bench queried Menon.
“In any criminal matter if chargesheet has not been filed for three and half years, its a matter of concern... You being the son should say why no chargesheet has not been filed,” the bench remarked adding, “We thought the son will be extremely keen to know as to who is the person (responsible for Sunanda’s death)”.
Delhi police’s counsel Rahul Mehra told the court that he has written to the DCP for the status report of the case. He said he will submit the status report after going through it.
“We will place it before the court. A portion of its has to be placed in a sealed cover,” Mehra said adding that he was “slightly surprised” by Menon’s prayer challenging Swamy’s plea for a court-monitored inquiry in the case.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Menon, asked the court to restrain Swamy from passing the status report to public and media.
However, the court declined to pass any order on Menon’s plea saying he has to be first made a party in Swamy’s petition before his prayer could be heard.
The court further said, “We have not even issued notice in the (Swamy’s) petition. We have not taken cognizance. We have not given seal of approval to his (Swamy) petition”.
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.
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”.
The high court has posted both the petitions for hearing on August 1.