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Plea in Delhi HC against clean chit to Shashi Tharoor in Sunanda Pushkar death
Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel on the night of January 17, 2014, following which the police sealed the room and registered an FIR
The Delhi high court on Thursday will hear a plea by city police challenging the clean chit given to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in connection with the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
The case is listed before justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma.
In August 2021, a trial court had discharged Tharoor from charges of abetment to suicide of his wife, while saying that there was no material against the legislator, much less any positive act to instigate or aid her in committing suicide, assuming it as the cause of death.
The court had held that material produced by the prosecution was “wholly or absolutely insufficient” creating the grounds for discharge. It said that even prima facie, there is nothing to show that Tharoor subjected Pushkar to mental cruelty of such a high degree that would lead to suicide.
Also Read:No evidence to convict Shashi Tharoor in Sunanda Pushkar’s death, says court
It said that even though the statement of the witnesses indicated that Pushkar was “agitated”, “distressed”, “felt betrayed” and “cheated” due to the alleged affair of Tharoor with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, nothing has been shown by the investigating agency to show that the former minister had provoked, incited or induced the deceased to commit suicide.
It said that none of the medical boards had concluded that the death had happened due to suicide.
It had also that the charge sheet was filed with a hope that perhaps the court would find some material to proceed with the trial; however, criminal trials require evidence.
“No doubt a precious life was lost. But in the absence of specific allegations and sufficient material to make out the ingredients of the various offences and on the basis of which the court could, at this stage presume that the accused had committed the offence, the accused cannot be compelled to face the rigmaroles of a criminal trial, the court had said.
Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel on the night of January 17, 2014, following which the police sealed the room and registered an FIR. The couple was staying at the hotel because Tharoor’s official bungalow was being renovated.
The case quickly grabbed national headlines and sparked a political tussle between the then ruling Congress party and its primary challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), months before general elections.
Delhi police registered the first FIR on January 1, 2015 against unidentified persons. It questioned Tharoor and others, and conducted a polygraph test on six people, including the minister’s help and staff.
On May 15, 2018, Delhi Police filed a 3,000-page charge sheet against Tharoor was 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). The maximum punishment for the offence is 10 years of imprisonment.
He denied all charges, calling them “preposterous and motivated”.
