NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today asked the city police to file a status report on a plea challenging the anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death case.
Justice R K Gauba asked the Delhi Police standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra to appear in the matter and listed the plea on September 25.
"The state shall file a status report inspecting the case against the backdrop of which the present controversy is raised," the court said.
The court was hearing the petition filed by a Delhi-based lawyer Deepak Anand challenging a trial court's July 5 order granting anticipatory bail to Tharoor in the matter.
Tharoor has also been made a party in the plea.
The petitioner said that after filing of charge sheet, the trial court took cognisance and issued summons to Tharoor, a member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram.
Instead of appearing before the court concerned, the Congress leader moved the court of an additional sessions judge which "erroneously" granted him bail, he said.
When the court asked the petitioner about maintainability and his locus in filing the plea, Anand referred to the Supreme Court judgements and said any member of the public could move the high court if the accused violated the liberty granted to him or if an erroneous order is passed by a court.
Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014.
The couple was staying in the hotel, as the official bungalow of Shashi Tharoor was being renovated at that time.
The police filed the charge sheet against Tharoor for the alleged offences under sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but he has not been arrested in the case.
Urging the court to set aside the sessions court's order granting anticipatory bail, the petition alleged that the relief was granted to Tharoor in utter disregard of the provisions of CrPC and by ignoring the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The plea claimed that the sessions court failed to appreciate that an application for anticipatory bail can be filed only during the period of probe and once the investigation is complete and charge sheet is filed by the probe agency, the law does not allow the accused to file such an application.
The sessions court in its July 5 order had noted that Tharoor has joined the investigation as and when called by the police.
It had also observed that the police had not, at any point of time, alleged that he has tried to flee from justice or shift base to another country.
It had noted that Tharoor was a sitting Member of Lok Sabha and used to be the Minister of State for External Affairs in the UPA government.