NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in connection with the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. He has to make an appearance in court on July 7.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal took cognisance of Delhi Police’s chargesheet and summoned the Thiruvananthapuram MP.
The order states, “I have gone through chargesheet and documents filed. On the basis of the police report, I take cognisance for the offence of abetment to suicide punishable under Section 306 and committing cruelty upon late Sunanda Pushkar under Section 498A IPC.”
In its chargesheet, Delhi Police had alleged that Tharoor had subjected his wife to cruelty. The chargesheet has been filed more than four years after Tharoor’s wife was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a Delhi hotel room.
Police has also concluded that Pushkar killed herself and hence no one has been charged with murder. The chargesheet was filed before the metropolitan magistrate under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
The chargesheet mentions marital discord as the cause of suicide and says that one party led the other to commit suicide.
“Sunanda Pushkar was being harassed for long. Her medical records show she was suffering from depression,” the chargesheet said.
Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room on January 17, 2014, days after being embroiled in a Twitter war with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over the latter’s alleged closeness with Tharoor.
Meanwhile, Tharoor said in a statement that he found the charges against him preposterous and baseless, the product of a malicious and vindictive campaign against him.
"I will continue to vigorously contest these charges and maintain my steadfast conviction that ultimately truth will prevail through the judicial system that we have privileged to have in our country," he said.
Tharoor said that he would like to point out from the very start he had fully co-operated with the investigating team and continued to maintain that due legal process must be followed in all respects related to this case.
(with input from IANS)