Swamy moves court seeking production of vigilance enquiry report in Sunanda case

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday moved a city court seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to produce the report of a vigilance enquiry conducted in Sunanda Pushkar death case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who has reserved for June 5 an order on whether to summon Pushkar's husband and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor as accused in the case, put up the application for consideration on that day.

Swamy has sought a direction to the probe agency to inform the court as to whether the shortcomings in the probe are satisfied.

The application stated that the report of a vigilance inquiry, ordered by Delhi Police Commissioner, had pointed to various serious shortcomings in the probe in the case.

"If this court examines those shortcomings pointed out in the vigilance report to the extent whether the investigating agency has considered these shortcomings prior to filing of the charge sheet, further investigations on the conspiracy and other angles may be carried out in the interest of justice," the application said.

Swamy also sought the court's nod to assist the prosecution in conducting the case.

Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

The Delhi Police had on May 14 accused the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram of abetting Sunanda's suicide and urged the court that he should be summoned as an accused in the four-and-half year-old case, claiming there was sufficient evidence against him.

In a nearly 3,000-page charge sheet, the police has named Tharoor as the only accused while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty. Tharoor has not been arrested in the case.

The Congress leader has been charged under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

Under section 498A, the maximum punishment is up to three years of imprisonment, while jail term of up to 10 years is prescribed under section 306.

The charge sheet, which includes several annexures including medical reports, said that Sunanda died within four years of her marriage with Tharoor. The couple had entered the wedlock on August 22, 2010.

An FIR was registered by the police on January 1, 2015, against unknown persons under IPC section 302 (murder).

The special investigation team on April 20 had told the apex court that a draft final report has been prepared after conducting "thorough professional and scientific investigations" in the case relating to the death of Congress MP's wife.