NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI: The ghost of former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul is continuing to haunt the corridors of power. Pul committed suicide on August 9 last year weeks after being unseated as the chief minister by a ruling of the Supreme Court quashing President’s Rule in the state.
On Friday, the first of his three wives, Dangwimsai, moved the Supreme Court with a prayer for a CBI probe into the circumstances leading to her husband’s death. The trigger for her petition was the revelation of a 60-page suicide note that Kalikho Pul purportedly wrote before hanging himself at the chief minister’s bungalow in Itanagar. The noted contained allegations of corruption in Arunachal as well as in the nation’s judiciary, particularly by two Supreme Court judges who “were parties to the judgment which quashed President’s Rule and led to the unseating of my husband,” Dangwimsai said.
Kalikho Pul’s widow called a press conference in New Delhi to highlight her demand for a probe into the circumstances of her husband’s death.
In the suicide note, Pul also levelled charges of corruption against incumbent chief minister Pema Khandu and his predecessor Nabam Tuki but Dangwimsai did not take their names although she enclosed a copy of the suicide note with her appeal.
Here are three main points of Dangwidsai’s press conference:
Order a CBI investigation
“The Supreme Court has laid down that any allegations of an offence made to police officers must be investigated after registering an FIR. This note contains several allegations constituting offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and others, and therefore, it is essential that an FIR be registered on the basis of the allegations contained in it and the case be investigated by the CBI since the primary allegations are of corruption of judges at the highest level,” Dangwimsai said.
“The then governor of Arunachal J P Rajkhowa had strongly recommended a CBI investigation into the serious allegations contained in the suicide note of my husband. Unfortunately, it appears that no FIR has been registered and no investigation conducted,” she said.
Threats to my life: Dangwimsai
Dangwimsai alleged that her family is getting threats from the Arunachal Pradesh government. "Ever since the (suicide) note surfaced in the media, my family including myself, my children and relatives have been subjected to threats from different quarters," she claimed.
Punish the guilty
"We want a free and fair probe in this case (into his death) and action according to law against those who are guilty of corruption," Dangwimsai said.