Delhi Court discharges Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in Sunanda Pushkar death case
Aug 18, 2021
New Delhi [India], August 18 : The Delhi court on Wednesday cleared Congress leader Shashi Tharoor of charges in connection with the case involving the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court said that the accused was discharged and asked him to file a bond.
Shashi Tharoor, who was present during the virtual hearing, thanked the court and said it had been absolute torture for the past seven-and-half years.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa told the court that they will be filing the bond today or tomorrow. Tharoor was represented by Senior advocate Pahwa and lawyer Gaurav Gupta.
Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava represented Delhi Police in the matter.
Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
Tharoor was the main accused in the matter according to the Delhi Police.
The former union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charge-sheeted 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).
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel recently reserved the order after prosecution and defence counsel concluded their arguments on the issue of framing of charges.
Earlier, Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava stressed that Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty which led to her bad health. The Public Prosecutor also argued that it was not an accidental death and relied on the post mortem report which suggested that the cause of death is poisoning which could be oral or injected.
Srivastava had also said that due to the mental cruelty caused to Pushkar, her health became worse. He further added that Pushkar was not facing any health issues earlier but problems begun due to "stress and betrayal".
Tharoor's Defence counsel and Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa said that prosecutors were not able to establish evidence against the leader and the theory of injecting poison is in the air and cannot be admissible.
Tharoor's lawyer also read the statement by Sunanda's son recorded under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in which he had said, "In the mortuary of AIIMS, I asked the doctor who conducted the post mortem about the case of death, he (doctor) responded that there is no foul play or poisoning but the same doctor later went to the media and said that death is due to poisoning. Shashi cannot harm even a fly."
