Pul’s widow approaches Vice-President for probe into suicide note

A delegation of eminent lawyers and activists accompanied Dangwimsai Pul, the widow of former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, on Tuesday to hand-deliver a letter to Vice-President Hamid Ansari for an independent probe into corruption allegations raised in her husband's suicide note against sitting Supreme Court judges and politicians.

Mrs. Pul, accompanied by advocate Prashant Bhushan, Harsh Mander, Yogendra Yadav, among others, sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to be set up to investigate into the allegations raised in the suicide note.

The letter said she was approaching the Vice-President as the note contained allegations against the President of India too.

The letter asked the Vice-President to “consult other judges in terms of Veeraswami’s judgment and permit filing of an FIR against the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and Hon’ble Justice Dipak Misra”.

The 1991 Supreme Court verdict in the K. Veeraswami versus State of Tamil Naducase had held that permission of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was mandatory before registration of FIR for corruption against serving High Courts or Supreme Court judges. If the allegation is against the CJI, then other seniormost judges of the Supreme Court should give prior permission for the FIR.

“If these allegations are not credibly investigated, a serious cloud of suspicion will continue to remain over the politicians and judges whose names are mentioned in the suicide note. This would be most unfortunate for our democracy as well as for the judiciary. A credible investigation in this matter can only be done by an SIT constituted by 3/5 judges next in seniority to the judges named in the note,” the letter said.

“I [Mrs. Pul], therefore, request you [Vice-President] to consult those judges and also request them to name an appropriate SIT which can credibly investigate these allegations,” it said.

“Since in this case the allegations are also against the sitting Chief Justice and the sitting President of India, I am therefore addressing this request to you to exercise the authority which normally the President would have exercised in terms of the Veeraswami’s judgment,” it added.

On February 23, Mrs. Pul withdrew from the Supreme Court, objecting to how her letter to CJI Khehar was converted into a criminal writ petition and placed for judicial hearing before a Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit.

She had noted how a judicial order dismissing the writ petition would have barred her from seeking other remedies.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing her, had raised the query as to how a letter seeking administrative consent from the Chief Justice Khehar to register an FIR on the basis of the suicide note found its way into the court's judicial side.