Top court seeks report from C'garh govt on probe done against activist Nalini Sundar

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Chhattisgarh government to apprise it of the status of investigation in the murder case registered against social activist and Delhi university professor Nandini Sundar and others in three weeks.

The top court asked the state government to enumerate steps it propose to take in the case against Sundar and others.

The Chhattisgarh police registered the case against Sundar and others in November 2015 for the alleged criminal conspiracy and murder of a tribal man in Sukma district of the state.

Besides Sundar other accused in the case include JNU professor Archana Prasad, political activists Vineet Tiwari and Sanjay Parate.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur, S A Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta issued notice to Chhattisgarh government and sought its response on the plea filed by Sundar in three weeks.

Sundar in her plea has sought deletion of her name from the FIR saying that Chhattisgarh government has done nothing in the case registered against her in past two years.

She said that they have not been questioned even once in past two years.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Chhattisgarh government said that they have made progress in the case and have recorded statements under section 164 CrPC of various persons.

"Issue notice returnable in three weeks. The state government should file an affidavit on the point that why no action was taken for the past two years and what steps it proposes to take in the immediate future," the bench said.

Mehta opposed the plea of Sundar and said that the

FIR cannot be quashed as certain progress has been made in the case.

"We have intention to investigate the case. We will satisfy the court on the point of progress made in the case," he said.

Senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for Sundar said that state has not taken any action in past two years on the FIR lodged against her in connection with some incident.

He said that state government has just kept the FIR pending and despite direction of the court that four weeks advance notice should be given to Sundar before questioning her in connection with the case.

Desai said his client faces problem whenever she has to go abroad as it has to be mentioned whether any FIR is pending against her or not.

To this, the bench told Desai, "Eliminating names from the FIR virtually means quashing of FIR and FIR cannot be quashed exparte without hearing the other side".