Sunanda Pushkar’s death: Delhi HC junks plea for probe

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Thursday rejected BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the death of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar, terming his PIL as a “textbook example of a political interest litigation”.

A bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and I.S. Mehta chastised the BJP leader and his lawyer for making “sweeping allegations” in the petition against Mr Tharoor and the Delhi police, without giving any basis for these accusations.

While dismissing the plea, the court said in future it expected Mr Swamy to act with “circumspection” required from PIL petitioners.

Pushkar was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a suite of a five-star hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

Mr Swamy, in his plea, had alleged that the police had “botched up” the probe and accused the Congress leader of “interfering” in the investigation now and even earlier when he was a minister in the UPA regime.

When questioned about the source based on which he had made the allegations, the BJP leader and his lawyer, who is a co-petitioner, said they would file affidavits to reply to the court’s query. However, the bench rejected their offer.