Delhi Police has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the clean chit given to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the case of the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. This comes more than a year after a Sessions Court in Delhi discharged Tharoor from the case.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma of the Delhi High Court heard the plea of the Delhi Police on Thursday. The court issued notice to the police on the application seeking condonation of delay in filing the petition. The court fixed February 7, 2023, as the next day of the hearing in the case.
Shashi Tharoor is accused of abetting the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, with the death being labelled as suicide. The Delhi Police had initially filed the case under murder charges, but after investigation, it was termed as suicide in the charge sheet. Shashi Tharoor was accused of marital cruelty (Section 498A) and abetment of suicide (Section 306) by the Police in its charge sheet.
However, the Congress leader was discharged by Special Judge Geetanjali Goel in August 2021, saying that there was no evidence to prove that Tharoor had acted in a manner which provoked, encouraged or incited Pushkar to die by suicide. The court had observed that without sufficient material, Tharoor can’t be compelled to face trial.
When the plea of Delhi Police came up for hearing on Thursday, Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa appearing for Tharoor said in the court that a copy of the plea has not been served on him. He alleged that police sent the copy of the plea to an email ID which was suspended by police.
He also urged that the records of the case should be not shared with anyone not related to the case, including the media, citing Chapter 17 of the Delhi High Court Rules. The counsel of the police said that there was no objection. Accordingly, the Court ruled that copy of the petition and document can’t be given to any person not a party to the case.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead on 17 January 2014 under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in Delhi. The cause of the death was determined to be ‘Alprazolam poisoning’ after post-mortem. While the police charge sheet says that she took an excessive amount of Alprazolam tablets, there are many who believe that the drug was fed or injected forcefully.
