It's curtains for DIG Anand case, SC junks CBI plea

New Delhi, November 29

The Supreme Court on Monday brought the curtain down on the 38-year-old DIG Joginder Singh Anand’s death case as it dismissed a CBI petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict acquitting his wife Indu Anand, their son Sumanjit Singh Nikki and nephew Sandeep Singh Sandy.

The DIG was a relative of senior BJP leader Maneka Gandhi. Sumanjit was 17 and Sandeep 18 at the time of the incident. “The special leave petition is dismissed. Pending application stands disposed of,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice MM Sundresh said, rejecting the CBI petition against the March 23, 2017, verdict of the High Court.

The order came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing Indu Anand, pointed out that the main witness domestic help Darshan Lal was tutored by the CBI to implicate Indu and other family members.

“The family has undergone trauma for such a long time. Indu is now 78 years old. The HC judgment is very well written. The CBI clearly overreached,” Sibal said. DIG Anand was allegedly found “drowned” in Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh, on the night intervening July 12 and 13, 1983. Based on the testimony of Darshan Lal, the CBI alleged during a quarrel in the family at their Sector 3 house, the DIG got injured and was presumed to be dead. He was thrown into lake resulting in his death by drowning, it alleged. — TNS