Sunanda Pushkar case: Delhi court reserves order on Subramanian Swamy’s plea to assist prosecution

A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its order on Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy’s application to assist the prosecution in the murder trial of Sunanda Pushkar, Bar & Bench reported. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said the court would pronounce its order on December 10.

Pushkar, who was the wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a New Delhi hotel in January 2014. The police have charged Tharoor with abetting suicide. Tharoor has claimed the charges against him were “preposterous and baseless” and a product of a “malicious and vindictive campaign”.

Swamy’s application had sought that the Delhi Police be directed to produce the vigilance inquiry report conducted after Pushkar’s death for framing additional charges. Both the prosecution and senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing on Tharoor’s behalf, opposed Swamy’s plea.

Public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava contended that since it is a criminal trial, the matter is between the state and the accused and a third party need not interfere. Pahwa agreed with the public prosecutor and said that Swamy was “an alien to the case” without any locus.

“It is a criminal trial, he [Swamy] is a stranger to the proceeding,” said Pahwa. “[If this is allowed] Everybody in the country will start poking their noses in every trial.”

However, Swamy claimed that he was not a total stranger to the case, arguing that he was the first one to file a Public Interest Litigation before the Supreme Court, reported Bar and Bench. He also asked the court to direct the Delhi Police to place the vigilance report before it in a sealed cover.

“I am only saying that the charges framed are incomplete,” Swamy said and asked the court to first consider the contents of the report and then decide on if it should be sent ahead to the Sessions Court for framing of charges.