HC concerned over delay in filing of chargesheet
During a brief hearing, the court put questions to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s stepson Shiv Menon’s counsel, asking how he was affected, as being the son he should not object to court-monitored probe in the matter
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday expressed concern over failure of the police to file a charge sheet in the Sunanda Pushkar case even after three-and-ahalf 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 courtmonitored, 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-ahalf years. It is a matter of concern,” the bench sad.
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 courtmonitored 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.
However, the bench said, “In the last three-and-ahalf years there has been no restrain on this. We are not getting into it.”
“Why did you not get restrain order from the court concerned,” the bench asked.
It said it has not yet entertained the allegations raised by Swamy in his petition against the probe agency.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police standing counsel Rahul Mehra submitted that he has not yet filed the status report in the matter as they are in process of consultation with the police officials on this issue.
Menon’s counsel, however, urged the bench that the status report be filed only in the court and should be given to only the party concerned in the matter, on which the bench replied it cannot conduct the investigation and monitor it.
Swamy along with advo- cate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari in their plea has alleged that “inordinate delay” has been caused in the investigation “which is a blot on the justice system”.
They have also claimed that many of the evidence in the case have been destroyed and alleged that Tharoor was influencing investigation in the matter.
The plea, which was filed on July six, sought setting up of a multi-disciplinary Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Intelligence Bureau, the Enforcement Directorate, RAW and the Delhi Police, which should be headed by the CBI, to probe the case. NEW DELHI: Iraq on Monday said it has no “substantial evidence” on whether the 39 Indians abducted in Mosul three years ago have been killed or are still alive but assured India that it is “making the best efforts” to find out.
The issue was raised by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during extensive talks with her Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-jaafari, who began a five-day India visit on Monday, nearly two weeks after Mosul was liberated from ISIS by Iraqi forces.
“We don’t know whether they are dead or alive. We are equally concerned. There is no substantial evidence whether they are alive or not. We are making the best efforts,” the Iraqi foreign minister told reporters about the Indians abducted in Mosul.
In a meeting with the relatives of the abducted Indians last week, Swaraj had said they might be languishing in a jail in Badush in northwest of Mosul where fighting was going on.
However, a media report from Badush on Friday said the jail is now an abandoned structure and has been unoccupied for weeks. Swaraj is likely to make a detailed statement in Parliament tomorrow about her meeting with her Iraqi counterpart.
In the talks, Swaraj and aljaafari decided to take steps to boost cooperation in areas of education, trade, energy and healthcare, official sources said.
The volume of bilateral trade in 2016-17 was nearly USD 13 billion. Iraq contributes significantly to India’s energy security and is the second largest supplier of crude oil to India in 2016-17 with a total volume of over 37 MMT.
The Iraqi foreign minister also met Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
India had requested Iraq to locate the 39 missing Indians, mostly from Punjab, after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from ISIS. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh was also sent to Iraq days after the Iraqi prime minister announced victory in the fight to liberate Mosul.