HC questions non-filing of chargesheet in Pushkar's death

The Delhi High Court on Monday expressed "concern" that police has not filed chargesheet into the death of Sunanda Pushkar even after the lapse of three and half years.

A division bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice Chander Shekhar issued notice to Delhi Police on a petition by Puskkar's son 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 Sunanda Pushkar's death.

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.

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

The bench queried Menon how he was affected by Swamy's plea.

"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.

"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.... We thought the son will be extremely keen to know as to who is the person (responsible for Sunanda's death)," it said.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Menon, asked the court to restrain Swamy from passing the status report to public and media.

He also accused Swamy of sharing all information of his application in various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter even before it is heard by the court.

Delhi Police's counsel Rahul Mehra told the court that status report of the case has not been filed in the court yet and he will submit it after going through it.

"We will place it before the court. A portion of it has to be placed in a sealed cover," he said, adding that he was "slightly surprised" by Menon's prayer challenging Swamy's plea for a court-monitored inquiry in the case.

The court, however, 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.

"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. We may dismiss it," the bench remarked.

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

Even after three years, police had not arrested anyone and no custodial interrogation took place, Swamy had said, adding that the post-mortem report confirmed her death was "unnatural" and "due to poison".

Swamy 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".

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.

The high court has posted both the petitions for hearing on August 1.

--IANS

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