Sunanda Pushkar death case: Court fix July 7 for Shashi Tharoor’s summon
New Delhi : In a recent development of Sunanda Pushkar death case, Delhi court ordered Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to be present in the trial linked with his wife’s death. The Congress MP has been summoned as an accused by a Delhi court today. The court fixed July 7 for his summons after taking cognizance of the chargesheet filed in the Pushkar death case.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal took cognizance of Tharoor's alleged offences of abetment of suicide and committing cruelty towards Pushkar.
"I have heard the prosecutor. I have gone through and perused the chargesheet and the documents filed along with it. On the basis of police report (chargesheet), I take cognizance of offence of abetment of suicide of late Sunanda Pushkar and committing cruelty upon her by Dr Shashi Tharoor," the judge said.
"There exists sufficient grounds to proceed against Tharoor for commission of offences of Section 306 and 498 A of IPC. Issue summons to him for appearance for July 7," the court added.
Soon after the court pronounced the orders, Tharoor's lawyer Vikas Pahwa told reporters that no offence was made out against the Congress leader and the prosecution's case was "absurd and preposterous".
"We shall be asking for a copy of the charge sheet and the documents relied upon by the prosecution. After going through them, we shall decide our further course of action. Dr Tharoor will take all legal remedies available to him in law," Pahwa said.
"Since no offences are made out and the prosecution case is absurd, preposterous and contrary to various judgments of the Supreme Court, we shall take appropriate steps to deal with it," Pahwa added.
It was last month, four years after Pushkar was found dead in suite number 345 of the Leela Hotel, the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet and mentioned her husband and Congress MP Tharoor name as an accused in the case. According to the chargesheet, Pushkar killed herself by consuming an overdose of antidepressant pills, alprazolam (Alprax), and was driven to taking the extreme step by her husband.
Though it was a murder investigation with the FIR registered under IPC Section 302 (murder), police have charged Tharoor under Sections 306 (abetment) and 498A (cruelty by husband) of the Indian Penal Code.
The chargesheet was filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh at the Patiala House court. Police have concluded that it was a case of suicide and not murder. The FIR in the case was filed under section 302 IPC.
Dismissing the police's conclusion as "preposterous", Tharoor said he would contest the chargesheet and went on to knock the investigations.
Pushkar was found dead in the Leela Hotel in south Delhi on January 17, 2014. Since then, the suite was sealed for investigation and de-sealed last month. An FIR under IPC Section 302 (murder) was registered on January 1, 2015 against unknown persons.
In April, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the case told the Supreme Court that a final report had been prepared after performing "thorough professional and scientific investigations" and would be submitted in the concerned trial court after "legal scrutiny".
"The SIT, after conducting thorough professional and scientific investigations, has prepared a draft police report under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code and sent the same to the prosecution department of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi for legal scrutiny," it further said
The 3,000-page final report which has been prepared under the supervision of police commissioner Amulya Patnaik, names Tharoor in column 11. The reasons for naming him are the circumstances preceding Sunanda's death and the injury marks on her body. These were strengthened by the statement of Tharoor's staffer, Narain Singh, who said there had been fight between the couple.
