Sunanda Pushkar case: Court reserves order for May 13 on Swamy's plea seeking to be part of trial

A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order for May 13 on BJP MP Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking to be part of the trial in the death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

Special judge Arun Bhardwaj passed the order after hearing all the parties.

Swamy has sought permission for assisting the court in the case and also to bring on record the Delhi Police's vigilance report on tampering of evidence in the case, claiming that it might lead to framing of additional charges.

He told the bench that he was not a stranger to the case as he had filed the PIL in the Supreme Court in the matter after which "things started moving". He said that his PIL was in larger interest of justice.

To this, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, objected saying that he was neither associated with the accused nor the victim, and was a complete outsider.

Pahwa said that Swamy has no locus standi in the case and was used to filing applications in cases with no locus.

"My learned friend presumes that he has locus but he is a stranger who is neither associated with the prosecution, nor with the accused or the victim, " Pahwa said.

He also said that if Swamy's plea was allowed then everybody who has filed a PIL in any case will start interfering with the proceedings asking to be made a party.

Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple were staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.

The former Union minister has been charged under sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but has not been arrested in the case.