SC accepts withdrawal of letter by Pul's wife

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul's widow to withdraw her letter for CBI or NIA probe into the allegations levelled in his purported suicide note against some former and serving persons holding constitutional posts and politicians.

The apex court's order came after the advocate appearing for the former chief minister's wife, Dangwimsai Pul, said Chief Justice of India J S Khehar should not have ordered this issue to be taken up in the judicial side as there are serious allegations.

An assertive senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for Pul, said the matter should be dealt with in administrative side as the dismissal of the case in the judicial side would render the former Chief Minister's widow remediless.

He also expressed reservations over the CJI setting up a two-judge bench to dispose of this "sensitive" matter, saying that in the matter of Calcutta High Court Judge, Justice C S Karnan, the CJI had constituted a seven-judge bench.

However, in the case in hand "which has far more serious implications", the CJI went ahead with the two-judge bench which he should not have done himself as there were serious allegations and setting up of a bench should have been left to the third senior-most judge of the apex court, Dave said.

"We would like to know how this matter has been listed before this court. It has to be dealt with in administrative side," Dave told a two-judge bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit while seeking recusal of the former from hearing the matter on the ground that he was a member in the bench at the Punjab and Haryana High Court when CJI Khehar was also a judge there.

In an appeal to the CJI, a copy of which she made public at a press conference here last week, Dangwimsai Pul had said "it is essential that an FIR be registered on the basis of the allegations contained in it (suicide note) and the case be investigated by the CBI since the primary allegations are of corruption of judges at the highest level."

She had also alleged that her family was getting threats and she was advised not to hold the press conference in which she made the late chief minister's suicide note public. "Ever since the (suicide) note surfaced in the media, my family including myself, my children and relatives have been subjected to various threats from different quarters," she has claimed.

Pul had committed suicide on August 9 last year and his body was found hanging in the official residence of the Chief Minister at Itanagar. After months of intense political developments, Pul had taken over the reins of Arunachal Pradesh on February 19, 2016 for a brief period but had to relinquish the job following a Supreme Court order in July.