In a bid to protect the first probe team led by the then Joint Commissioner Vivek Gogia, the Delhi Police on Saturday refused to provide the findings of the Vigilance Report to the Court exposing the violations and attempts to sabotage the investigation in the Sunanda death case. In their affidavit to Delhi Police said the Vigilance Report sought by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was not relevant in the case while opposing also Swamy’s petition to assist the Prosecution. Interestingly, the accused Shashi Tharoor’s lawyer Vikas Pahwa also objected Swamy’s demand.

Delhi Police’s Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava said that assisting the prosecution does not arise at this stage as the case is charged with Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the trial has to happen only at Session Judge’s Court. In the arguments, the Delhi Police was seen trying to keep silence on the Vigilance Report. Responding to arguments, Swamy pointed out Cr PC 301 & 302 allows private persons to assist the Persecution and conduct the case. Swamy said that Vigilance Report shows serious violations in the probe conducted by the Delhi Police and it is a must that the Court should see it how the evidences were tampered by the first probe team. He also said that the entire charge sheet was made only after his petition to the Supreme Court. Swamy was assisted by Advocate Ishkaran Bhandari and Advocate Dilip Kumar.

Hearing the arguments, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, scheduled the case for July 26 at 2 PM for scrutiny of bail documents submitted by Shashi Tharoor and further consideration of Swamy’s petition for production of the controversial Vigilance Report. The hearing and trial of this case is expected to be shifted to the Additional Session Court soon.

Many media have already reported the contents of the Delhi Police Vigilance Report exposing the first probe led by the then Joint Commissioner Vivek Gogia[1]. The reports clearly indicted Vivek Gogia for sabotaging the probe to save Shashi Tharoor. Even the bed sheet of the hotel room, where Sunanda was found dead was collected only after 10 months! Another crucial evidence – mobile phones of Sunanda – were given back to husband Tharoor on the same day and later the data was retrieved and found that there were many details were erased.

Many officers have confessed to the Vigilance that they were acting on the directions of Gogia. The crucial CCTV visuals were missing from the collected data, which was an attempt to save many persons involved in Sunanda’s mysterious death on January 17, 2014.

Shashi Tharoor appeared in the court with many private security persons, popularly known as bouncers and bail bond providers in the morning. The Thiruvananthapuram MP, who was summoned as an accused in the case, appeared before the court and informed it that he had already been granted anticipatory bail by a sessions court on July 5.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal then directed him to furnish a bail bond of Rs One lakh and one surety of like amount as directed by the Sessions Court and converted the interim relief to regular bail.

The 3500-page chargesheet has made husband Shashi Tharoor as the only accused with charges of under IPC 306 (abetment to suicide) and IPC 498A (Cruelty to wife). Delhi Police told Court that further probe on 12 injury marks in Sunanda’s body and other aspects are under investigation. It is widely expected in legal circles that the charges for evidence tampering and murder may be slapped on Tharoor in due course. The Vigilance Report and AIIMS post-mortem reports will lead to these aspects, they say.

References:

[1] Vigilance points to serious lapses in Sunanda probe – May 29, 2018, The Pioneer