Shashi Tharoor Summoned As An Accused In Sunanda Pushkar Death Case

Member of Parliament (MP) from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor, has been summoned by a Delhi court to appear on 7 July in connection with the 2014 death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar under suspicious circumstances.

The court, which has taken cognisance of the chargesheet against Tharoor, said yesterday (6 June) that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against the Congress leader. Tharoor, who has been named as an accused for abetment to suicide and cruelty in the chargesheet by the Delhi police, is likely seek bail. If granted, he will have to contest the charges against him in court and will be put on trial if the court finds a prima facie case to be made against him, otherwise not.

The Delhi police filed a chargesheet running into nearly 3,000-pages in the Patiala House Court, on 14 May, four years after Pushkar was found dead in her room at Delhi’s Leela Palace on 17 January 2014. The chargesheet named Tharoor as an accused in the case and charged him under section 306 (abetment to suicide) and section 498A (cruelty in marriage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. It also urged the court to summon Tharoor as an accused. The maximum punishment under section 498A is three years of imprisonment, while under section 306 it is a jail term of 10 years.

Tharoor, while saying he has “fully cooperated with the investigating team”, maintained that “due legal process must be followed in all aspects of the case”. He has called the charges “preposterous and baseless” and that “a product of a malicious and vindictive campaign” against him. He vowed to vigorously contest these charges.