New Delhi: Four years after his wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in her room in a five-star hotel in Delhi, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was on Monday charged with abetting suicide.
According to the charge sheet submitted by Delhi Police in a Delhi court, Tharoor, 62, has been accused of cruelty in his marriage.
“On the basis of medico-legal and forensic evidence analysed during investigation as well as opinion of psychological autopsy experts, the charge sheet was filed. The matter is sub judice. Sunanda was driven to depression,” a Delhi Police spokesperson told media.
The charge sheet mentioned marital discord as the cause of suicide.
“One party led the other to commit suicide. Sunanda Pushkar was being harassed for long. Her medical records show she was suffering from depression in her marriage,” the 3,000-page charge sheet stated.
“It is evident Sunanda Pushkar had been driven to suicide — she had not been eating or even leaving her room. The couple fought frequently and Sunanda Pushkar had been taking depression pills without prescription,” the Delhi Police said in a statement.
Parliamentarian from Kerala Tharoor described the charges as “preposterous”.
“I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet and intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. If this is the conclusion arrived at after four-plus years of investigation, it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police,” he told media.
He further said that in October 2017, the Law Officer told the Delhi High Court (HC) that they did not find anything against him.
“Now just after six months, they are saying that I have abetted a suicide. Unbelievable,” Tharoor tweeted.
The couple married on August 22, 2010.
Pushkar, 51, was found dead in her hotel suite on January 17, 2014, a day after she accused her husband of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist. Earlier, police had claimed Pushkar was poisoned, and registered a murder case in January 2015, without naming any suspect.
The magistrate will hear the case on May 24.
Tharoor has been charged under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of Indian Penal Code.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Subramanian Swamy had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in HC in Pushkar case.
He sought a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into Pushkar’s death and asked for a joint multi-agency team to investigate the case.
