Delhi High Court raps Subramanian Swamy for political interest plea'

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”. The bench chastised the BJP leader and his lawyer for making “sweeping allegations” against Tharoor and the Delhi Police, without giving any basis for these accusations.

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 Tharoor and the Delhi Police, without giving any basis for these accusations. While dismissing the plea, the court said in future it expected 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.

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, saying it appeared that they had concealed information pertinent to the case, which they ought to have disclosed when they had filed the petition. The court also said Swamy ought to have mentioned his political affiliation as well as that of Tharoor in his petition as these facts were important to the adjudication of the case.