HC to hear Swamy's plea on Pushkar's death on July 20

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said it will hear on July 20 BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking a time-bound court-monitored probe into the death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

A division bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice P.S. Teji will hear the representatives of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Delhi Police on the next date of hearing.

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

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.

It was evident there was an "attempt to block the investigation", said Swamy, adding that even after three years, police had not arrested anyone and no custodial interrogation took place.

"A lot of evidence was destroyed. Delhi Police has set up a vigilance inquiry to probe lapses into this investigation," said Swamy.

The post-mortem report confirmed her death was "unnatural" and "due to poison", Swamy said.

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

When the bench asked what was the public interest in this case for the court to interfere, Swamy told the bench that there was public interest in "exposing the corruption".

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 PIL sought a court-monitored investigation by constituting a "multi-disciplinary SIT consisting of Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, RAW, Delhi Police and headed by CBI" or a time-bound CBI probe.

"It's an extreme example of the slow motion of the criminal justice process and the extent to which it can be subverted by the rich and influential. It unfolds the apparent apathy on the part of all those concerned with the administration of criminal justice," said the plea.

--IANS

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