Sunanda Pushkar death case: Order on issue of framing charges against Tharoor on August 18
Jul 27, 2021
New Delhi [India], July 27 : A Delhi Court on Tuesday adjourned till August 18, order on the issue of framing of charges against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
Meanwhile, the court allowed Delhi Police to submit additional documents related to the case.
Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava has sought to file some judgments of the High Court and Supreme Court along with written submissions with regard to framing of charge in the case.
Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, husband of Sunanda Pushkar is the main accused in the matter according to the Delhi Police.
Tharoor, a 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).
Earlier, the pronouncement of the order got deferred in the matter. Special Judge Geetanjali Goel recently had kept the order reserved 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 leads to her bad health. The Public Prosecutor 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.
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 prosecutors are not able to establish evidence against the leader and the theory of injecting poison is in the air and can not 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 poinsiong but the same doctor later went into the media and said that death is due to poisoning. Shashi cannot harm even a fly."
