Tanwar murder case hearing adjourned to May

The Delhi high court has adjourned until May 5 the hearing of a public interest petition regarding the mysterious death of Dr Surendra Talwar, the personal physician of Congress president Sitaram Kesri. Police investigations had allegedly hinted at the involvement of ''certain influential persons''.

A division bench, consisting of acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice S K Mahajan, adjourned the hearing of the petition filed by the All-India Young Lawyers Association after standing counsel for the police S K Aggarwal submitted that the ''status report'' sought by the court in February would be filed in the next two days.

The petitioner’s counsel, Kamini Jaiswal, contended that the Delhi police was going slow in the investigations and the petitioners were, in the meanwhile, receiving ''threatening phone calls''. But she said /she did not know who was making those calls.

The AIYLA had contended that the investigation into Dr Tanwar's murder was transferred to the Delhi Crime Branch on January 18, 1994 as the ''needle of suspicion'' pointed at ''certain influential persons''.

Dr Tanwar's neatly hacked body, packed in plastic bags, was found at different parts of Delhi after his mysterious disappearance on October 28 1993.

The petitioners contended that the transfer of the case to the Crime Branch was a ''ruse'' and ''no serious investigation was being conducted". They said former Union minister of state for internal security Rajesh Pilot had also written to Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the matter and an explanation as to why no action was being taken for three years.

Seeking a ''fair, objective and impartial investigation'', the petitioners sought that the court direct that the matter be investigated by the CBI or any other appropriate investigating agency.

The high court bench, then consisting of Chief Justice M J Rao and Justice Manmohan Sarin, had in Feburary called for a status report from the Delhi police commissioner on investigations into the Tanwar murder case.

The first information report registered at the Tilak Marg police station on October 29, 1993 on a complaint by Dr Tanwar's wife Kaveri said she had ''strong reason to suspect'' he had been kidnapped.