As per the latest developments, Delhi Police has moved to Delhi High Court against the discharge of Congress Lok Sabha MP Shahi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
On 18th August 2021, the Patiala House Court exonerated the Sunanda Pushkar Death case.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma of the Delhi High Court heard the plea on 1st December. The court has issued notice to the police on the application looking for condonation of delay in filing the petition. The case has been adjourned to the next date of 7th February 2024.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa appeared for Shashi Tharoor, he pointed out that the order was challenged after a delay of 15 months. He referred to Chapter 17 of the Delhi High Court rules record of criminal revision is not to be shared with a stranger to the case.
Accordingly, the case ruled that copies of documents cannot be shared with any stranger to the case
Delhi police had accused Shashi Tharoor of abetting his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death. Tharoor was accused of martial cruelty (section 498A) and abetment of suicide (section 306) by police in the charge sheet.
Sunanda Pushkar Death Case
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Delhi’s Leela Hotel on 17 January 2014. There were allegedly injury marks found on her body. Alprazolam drug was found in her stomach which caused suspicion of foul play. The charge sheet claimed that Sunanda took excessive Alprazolam tablets while some believe she was injected under coercion.
The case took turns after the AIIMS Forensic Department head Dr. Sudhir Gupta asserted that he was being pressurized to manipulate the autopsy report.
Delhi Police commissioner BS Bassi said that Sunanda’s death wasn’t caused due to natural reasons.
The city police on Thursday approached the Delhi High Court challenging a trial court’s 2021 order discharging Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in connection with his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death case. Justice D K Sharma asked the counsel for the Delhi Police to supply the copy of its petition to Tharoor’s counsel, who claimed the plea was not served to him and it was “deliberately” sent on a wrong email id.
The Delhi Police on Thursday moved the High Court against the discharge of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor by a trial court in his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death case.
The Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Tharoor for offences under IPC sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment to suicide). The Patiala House Court on August 18, 2021, had discharged him.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued a notice on Delhi Police’s application seeking “condonation of delay” in approaching the court.
Speaking for Tharoor, Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa objected that even though the trial court’s order was passed in August 2021, there is a 15-month delay in filing the review plea. He added that a copy of the plea had also not been served to his client.
As Pahwa submitted various orders passed by the session judge and other trial court judges during the course of the trial, he asserted that no documents of the case should be shared with anyone else other than the parties.
Having said that, the High Court questioned, “But how can this be done? these are public documents.
The court listed the matter for February 7, 2024.
On January 17, 2014, Pushkar was found dead in a suite at a luxury hotel in Delhi. A year later, the Delhi Police initially registered an FIR against unknown persons on charges of murder. The Police asked a Delhi court to prosecute Tharoor for abetment to suicide or “alternatively” frame murder charges against him on August 31, 2019.
The trial court had discharged Tharoor of the charges as it observed that there was no prima facie willful conduct on his part that was likely to drive Pushkar to commit suicide. Since there was no sufficient material, it was observed that the defendant isn’t required to go through the trouble of a criminal trial. Moreover, none of the reports submitted by Doctors and the Autopsy Board confirmed the cause of death as suicide, the special judge had observed.
Following the judgment, Tharoor told the court that all these years were absolute torture. He later released a statement saying that his faith in the judiciary had been “vindicated” and his “long nightmare” was over.
