Sunanda Pushkar death: Delhi Police want to try Shashi Tharoor on murder charge

The Congress MP has been charged for abetment of suicide, cruelty.

Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar. File

The Delhi police on Saturday urged a city court to prosecute Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for abetment to suicide or “in alternative” on murder charge in the case of death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014. It made a submission on Saturday that the post-mortem report had evidence of murder.

Sunanda was found dead in a five-star hotel here on January 17, 2014. The police have charge-sheeted Mr. Tharoor under Sections 306 (abetting in the commission of suicide) and 498A (subjecting a married woman to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code. The court took cognisance of the charge sheet and summoned Mr. Tharoor last year. He is on bail now.

In his arguments on the framing of charges before Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava urged the court to frame both charges against Mr. Tharoor and decide which of the two offences was proved or not proved in the trial. Section 221 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides for framing of charges in such a manner when there is a doubt about which of several offences an accused has committed, he said. “If a single act or series of acts is of such a nature that it is doubtful which of several offences the facts, which can be proved, will constitute, the accused may be charged with having committed all or any of such offences and any number of such offences may be tried at once or he may be charged in the alternative with having committed one of the said offences,’’ Section 221 of the Code says.The prosecution concluded its arguments. The matter will now come up for hearing on October 17 when defence counsel will begin arguments.

“I have perused the charge sheet [police report under Section 173 of the Cr. PC] and, documents filed along with it, by the Special Investigation Team. On the basis of the police report, I take cognizance of the offence of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the IPC of late Ms. Sunanda Pushkar and of committing cruelty upon her, punishable under Section 498A of the IPC, by Dr. Shashi Tharoor,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal had said while summoning Mr. Throor.

Mr. Srivastava had also argued that there was sufficient material on record to prove the charges against Mr. Tharoor of subjecting Sunanda Pushkar to cruelty and thereby abetting in her suicide.

(With inputs from PTI )