The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition seeking a detailed inquiry into the killing of 39 Indians in Iraq in 2014, and fined the petitioner Rs 1 lakh, reported PTI.
A bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the petition filed by lawyer Mehmood Pracha reflects “extreme insensitivity” towards the families of the victims and does not take into account the steps the Centre took to save the hostages’ lives. “We have found no legality in the present writ petition,” they added.
The court said that Pracha had political and personal interests in filing the petition and asked him to deposit the fine in the Advocates’ Welfare trust within a month, India Legalreported.
In his plea, Pracha accused the Centre of not disclosing to the families that the Islamic State terrorist group had killed the hostages even though it knew that it was not true.
In March, the Congress had decided to move a privilege motion against Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in the Rajya Sabha for allegedly misleading the House about the deaths. Congress MP Ambika Soni had accused the Centre of attempting to suppress the news of the murders despite the Opposition party’s efforts to raise the matter repeatedly.
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