Sunanda Pushkar death case: Delhi court adjourns order on framing of charges against Shashi Tharoor

By LE Desk

New Delhi, July 2, 2021: A Delhi court on Friday adjourned its order on the framing of charges in the Sunanda Pushkar death case till July 27. 

According to the Delhi Police, the chief accused in the matter is Pushkar’s husband, veteran Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor, who is currently on bail in the case.

At the Delhi court hearing on Friday, the public prosecutor insisted that Sunanda Pushkar had undergone mental cruelty, resulting in her bad health. It was also argued that the death was not accidental, according to the post-mortem report. The prosecutor stressed that Pushkar’s death could have been a result of oral or injected poisoning, reported the Hindustan Times.

Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of the then UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in New Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014. The preliminary probe indicated that Pushkar had committed suicide, but later reports revealed that the cause of her death was unnatural. The autopsy report indicated that at the time of her death, Pushkar was under drug overdose — “most likely a combination of sedatives, other strong medicines, and probably alcohol.” Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, her husband, was later charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including abetment to suicide and cruelty.

The Rouse Avenue court in Delhi is supposed to pass its order on the issue of framing of charges. Notably, Tharoor has been charged-sheeted by the 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). 

However, the Congress leader, represented by his legal counsel Vikas Pahwa, has argued that there is no admissible evidence against him and the theory of injecting poison. Special Judge Geetanjali Goyal recently had kept the order reserved after prosecution and defence counsel concluded their arguments on the issue of framing of charges.