press trust of india
New Delhi, July 24: The Delhi High Court Monday expressed concern over failure of the police to file a chargesheet in the Sunanda Pushkar case even after three-and-a-half years.
The oral observation by a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Chander Shekhar came as it sought response of the Delhi Police and Subramanian Swamy on a plea moved by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s stepson Shiv Menon seeking his impleadment in the BJP leader’s petition for a court-monitored, CBI-led SIT probe into the death of Pushkar.
Menon has also questioned Swamy’s locus in seeking such a probe, alleging that he was doing it only for publicity. The bench asked Delhi Police to make its stand clear by August 1 and refused to pass any restraining order against Swamy.
“We thought the son (Menon) would be more keen to know who is the person who killed his mother. Here is an opportunity to say why the charge sheet was not filed in the matter for three-and-a-half years. It is a matter of concern,” the bench said.
During the brief hearing, the court put questions to Menon’s counsel that how was he affected, as being the son he should not object to the court-monitored probe in the matter. Responding to the query, Menon’s counsel submitted that he has no issue if the court orders probe but Swamy is only doing this for publicity.
Menon’s plea also said that the investigating agency should be directed not to supply Swamy the copy of the status report with regard to the ongoing probe into Pushkar’s death. The bench said it is not going to pass any restraining order and Menon’s petition questioning the locus standi of Swamy will be decided after the parties are heard. Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa had moved the court on behalf of Menon in a pending petition filed by Swamy seeking probe in the death of Pushkar, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi here on the night of January 17, 2014.
Pahwa also sought restrain on Swamy posting the status report and documents related to the case on social media.
