Delhi HC To Hear On July 20 Swamy’s PIL For Time-Bound SIT Probe Into Sunanda Pushkar Muder Case

The Delhi  High Court on Wednesday said it will hear on July 20 the Public Interest Litigation moved by Union cabinet minister and BJP MP Subramanian Swamy seeking a time-bound court-monitored multi-disciplinary probe into the murder of Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a five-star hotel suite on January 17, 2014.

The High Court also asked the Delhi Police to file a status report about its probe into the murder case.

Dr Swamy through advocate and co-petitioner Ishkaran Singh Bhandari has in his PIL sought a proper and time-bound probe in the case which they said ​​“is 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”.

The PIL has been filed against Delhi Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

51-year-old Pushkar was found dead at a suite in a five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after her spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over her alleged affair with Tharoor.

No case was registered and the cause of death was suggested poisoning.  No arrests have been made in the case till date.

The PIL prays for “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.

The PIL highlights how even three years after Ms Pushkar’s mysterious murder, no chargesheet has been filed and no arrests have been made. It also lists various loopholes in the police probe and the manner in which investigation has been botched up by the probe agency itself.

A case of murder was registered a year later.