Delhi HC refuses urgent hearing of PIL on Sunanda death case probe

The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to give an urgent hearing to a plea seeking its intervention in the ongoing probe into the mysterious death of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar.

A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva declined the request of NGO Anti-Corruption Front to hear the plea today saying "there is no urgency".

"There is no such urgency as asked by you. Let it (PIL) come or be listed then the court will hear it," the bench said after the counsel for the NGO requested for an urgent hearing in the matter.

The court's refusal came when the PIL was mentioned this morning. It was alleged that the investigating agency was biased in probing the case so there was no positive or constructive development in the matter and in such a situation, there was cause and reason for the court to intervene.

The plea filed against Ministry of Home Affairs, CBI and Delhi Police said that police had registered an FIR almost a year after the incident, despite clear guidelines by the Supreme Court and high courts that on receiving information disclosing commission of a cognisable offence, an FIR should be registered without any delay.

"Even the investigating agency found it is a clear case of murder but till date it is in dark. Even one year after the incident occurred in a five star hotel here, no convincing conclusion has come out," the PIL said.

It added that Pushkar died under mysterious circumstances, her body carried more than 10 injury marks and the reason for the death was mentioned as poisoning.

A special investigation team has been constituted by the Delhi Police to probe Pushkar's death after registering an FIR in the case on January 1. The FIR was based on Pushkar's third autopsy report by the AIIMS medical board.

The police had questioned Lok Sabha MP Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and ex-Union Minister on the night of December 19.

"The facts of the case indicate that the top police officials were influenced and the accused have succeeded in their efforts by keeping the present case in cold storage for a period of one year. So, the investigation of the case has not been proceeding in the proper direction, if the present investigation is continuing in this manner no truth would come out," the plea said.

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel here on January 17, 2014. The police filed an FIR on January 1, 2015, relying on the report by AIIMS medical board saying she was poisoned to death.