SC rejects Ashish Khetan’s plea against death threat

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused a plea by Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan for security following alleged death threats from suspected right-wing parties.

His counsel Kapil Sibal refused to accept a court decision to brush off his contention that Khetan’s life was at a risk in “this kind of political atmosphere”.

Sibal insisted that the two-judge bench, comprising Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and U U Lalit, pass a reasoned order on his plea. But Justice Goel would only say, “Sorry.”

Sibal argued that the bench must say whether his plea was not maintainable or any other reason why he was being turned away. “If my lords don’t intervene in such matters, where do we go?”

After Justice Lalit sought a clarification from him, Sibal said Khetan had voluntarily given up his security when he came to assume the position of advisor to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with cabinet rank.

Khetan received the alleged death threat in a letter. Sibal contested that already three people have been killed after such threats, citing the cases of Narendra Dabholkar and other RTI activists and rationalists.

“These threats are coming because of the political atmosphere,” he said.

But the bench was cold to his plea, and asked him to go to the Delhi High Court.

Sibal claimed that Khetan had written to the Delhi police commissioner and the home ministry and apprised them of the threats made to his life by suspected right-wing outfits, but nothing had come of it. “What do I do then?”