E-Paper
Sunanda Pushkar death: Court defers framing of charges against Tharoor for third time
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday deferred for the third time its order on the framing of charges against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar death case
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday deferred for the third time its order on the framing of charges against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
Additional session judge Geetanjali Goel adjourned passing of the order which is now likely to be pronounced on July 27.
The Delhi high court on April 18 had notified that it would hear only extremely urgent matters in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic.
Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014, following which the police had charged Tharoor with abetment to suicide, among other charges. Tharoor has consistently denied all charges, calling them “preposterous and motivated”.
On May 14, 2018, Tharoor had tweeted: “I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet & intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part... If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of investigation it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police.”
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, had argued that no case of abetment to suicide is made out against his client. Pahwa had told the court that doctors have not been able to ascertain the cause of death or establish whether Pushkar had indeed died by suicide and, hence, the case of abetment to suicide against Tharoor was nothing but “a figment of imagination of the police”.
He had earlier said the post-mortem examination and other medical reports have allegedly established that it was neither a suicide nor homicide. He had also said that during the course of the investigation, there have been many reports by experts before the investigating officer (IO), but there was “no definite opinion on the cause of death” in any of them.
Tharoor, a former union minister who is currently on bail in the case, was chargesheeted by Delhi Police 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).
Public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava claimed that Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty which led to her bad health. He also argued that it was not an accidental death and relied on the post-mortem report which suggests that the cause of death is poisoning which could be oral or injected.
The prosecutor further added that Pushkar was not facing any health issue earlier but problems began due to “stress and betrayal”.
