Delhi HC to hear PIL on Sunanda Pushkar murder case probe on 4 February

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday fixed 4 February for hearing of a plea seeking its intervention in the ongoing probe into the death of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar. [caption id=“attachment_2068853” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Delhi High Court will hear a PIL on the Sunanda Pushkar murder case on 4 February. PTI[/caption] A bench of Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva meanwhile declined the request of NGO Anti-Corruption Front to hear the plea today, saying there was no urgency. “There is no such urgency as asked by you and the police is already investigating the case. The court concerned will hear it on February 4,” the bench said after the counsel for the NGO urged for an urgent hearing. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Union Home Ministry, opposed the petition and said thatthe police was already investigating the case and the probe was continuing. “This kind of petition will send a wrong message, so it be dismissed,” the government counsel said. The PIL alleged that the investigating agency was biased in probing the case and hence there was no positive or constructive development in the matter and in such a situation, there was reason for the court to intervene. The plea filed against Home Ministry, CBI and Delhi Police said that an FIR had been lodged by the police almost a year after the incident, despite clear guidelines by Supreme Court and high courts that on receiving information on commission of a cognisable offence, an FIR should be registered without 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 claimed that Pushkar died under “mysterious” circumstances, her body bore 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 1 January. The FIR was based on Pushkar’s third autopsy report by the AIIMS medical board. The police had questioned Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and Union Minister on 19 December. “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 17 January, 2014. The police filed an FIR on 1 January, 2015, relying on the report by AIIMS medical board saying she was poisoned to death. PTI