Kejriwal orders appointment of special public prosecutor in Soumya’s case
NEWDELHI: A day after the father of murdered journalist Soumya Vishwanathan wrote to the Delhi chief minister, complaining about the slow pace of the trial, Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday directed his chief secretary to “immediately” appoint a special public prosecutor and send a show cause notice to the incumbent prosecutor.
Kejriwal said he had taken a “strong exception” to reports about the public prosecutor’s “absence” in the last few days of the court hearing. “It is absolutely shocking,” the CM said in a statement released on Thursday.
Soumya’s mother, Madhvi, welcomed the development saying she was “happy about it”. “I now hope the trial is completed soon,” said Madhvi.
On Wednesday, Soumya’s father, MK Vishwanathan, had written to Kejriwal about the slow trial, which has been going on for the past 10 years, and had particularly highlighted the “quality of efforts” put in by the public prosecutor, RK Gurjar.
Vishwanathan, in his email to the CM, had blamed Gurjar for being “unresponsive” in sharing updates with the family and had requested for a special public prosecutor. “He (Gurjar), once again, was absent from the court on the date of the last hearing on February 2,” he wrote.
Responding to Vishwanathan’s email on Wednesday, Gurjar had defended himself saying he was handling over 450 cases, which included the murder of businessman Ponty Chaddha. He had gone on to call it a “super speedy trial” given how loaded the trial courts already are.
He had also said that he wasn’t liable to brief Soumya’s family, before adding that he would thenceforth ask his subordinates to keep them updated.
The chief minister has asked that a show cause notice be “immediately” issued to the public prosecutor “skipping hearings and not taking the duty seriously”. Gurjar said he couldn’t attend the court hearing on February 2, as he was unwell.
While the trial has been going on for the last 10 years, the trigger for the developments was a petition in high court by one of the murder accused, Baljeet Singh Malik, who sought a speedy trial and a compensation of ₹1 crore for the prolonged delay.
Malik is already convicted and serving a life sentence for the murder of Jigisha Ghosh, another Delhi woman who was killed six months after Soumya.