HC concerned over delay in filing of charge sheet, seeks Subramanian Swamy's reply on plea of Sunanda Pushkar's son

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-a-half 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 court-monitored, 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-a-half years. It is a matter of concern," the bench said.

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 court-monitored 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-a-half 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 advocate 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.