Sunanda Pushkar case: State making excuses for delay in filing revision, says Shashi Tharoor

Opposing the plea by the city police for the condonation of delay in challenging the trial court’s order, Tharoor has said that the revision plea has been filed 15 months after the trial court passed its order on August 18, 2021, exonerating him from all charges.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday told the Delhi high court on Tuesday that the State is making excuses and pinning the blame on the former public prosecutor for the inordinate delay in filing a revision plea against the clean chit given to the legislator for allegedly abetting his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s suicide.

In August 2021, the trial court discharged Shashi Tharoor, saying there was no material against the lawmaker to accuse him in charges related to death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. (HT Photo)

Opposing the plea by the city police for the condonation of delay in challenging the trial court’s order, Tharoor has said that the revision plea has been filed 15 months after the trial court passed its order on August 18, 2021, exonerating him from all charges.

Tharoor in his reply to the court has said that the police’s application for condonation of delay does not provide any details as to when the decision was taken by the Directorate of Prosecution to file a revision petition against the trial court’s order or when the sanction was granted to file it.

It said the State has given a vague explanation that the previous petition was filed in November 2021 by the office of additional standing counsel and objection could not be removed for a long time due to the rise in COVID-19 cases and thereafter a new counsel was appointed and it was found that the earlier petition has been lost.

On Tuesday, while hearing the matter, justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma noted that the reply was not record and posted the matter for hearing on May 17.

Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead in a hotel room on January 17, 2014 following which the police charged her husband with abetment to suicide, among other charges. The couple was staying at the hotel because Tharoor’s official bungalow was being renovated.

The Delhi police registered the first FIR on January 1, 2015, against unidentified persons and filed a charge sheet against Shashi Tharoor in May 2018, charging him under sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Tharoor had denied all charges, calling them “preposterous and motivated”.

In August 2021, the trial court discharged Shashi Tharoor, saying there was no material against the lawmaker to accuse him of the offences, much less any positive act to instigate or aid her in committing suicide. The judge also cited the opinion of the medical board which the court said, did not confirm that Pushkar’s death was a case of suicide.

“There is nothing, even prima facie, to suggest that there was any wilful conduct on the part of the accused (Tharoor) of such a nature as was likely to drive Pushkar to commit suicide or to cause injury or danger to life, limb or health,” the court said.

It said the charge sheet was filed with a hope that perhaps the court would find some material to proceed with the trial, but “criminal trials require evidence”.