Court summons Shashi Tharoor to face trial as accused

New Delhi: A trial court in Delhi on Tuesday summoned Congress MP Shashi Tharoor as an accused in the case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death, saying there was sufficient ground to proceed against him. He has been asked to appear before the court on July 7.

Mr Tharoor, a Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram and a former Union minister, is the only person named as an accused in the Delhi police’s chargesheet that runs into more than 3,000 pages.

The chargesheet, submitted to the court on May 14, alleges that he subjected Sunanda to mental as well as physical cruelty that drove her to commit suicide.

The couple’s domestic servant, Narayan Singh, has been named as one of the key witnesses in the case.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal, taking cognisance of charges of alleged abetment of suicide and committing cruelty, said, “I have heard the prosecutor. I have gone through and perused the chargesheet and the documents filed along with it. On the basis of policereport (chargesheet), I take cognisance of offence of abetment of suicide of late Sunanda Pushkar and committing cruelty upon her by Dr Shashi Tharoor. There exists sufficient grounds to proceed against Tharoor for commission of offences of Section 306 and 498 A of IPC. Issue summons to him for appearance for July 7.” Reacting to the summons, Mr Tharoor issued a statement via his Twitter account. He called the charges against him “preposterous and baseless”, and a “product of a vindictive campaign” against him.

Delhi Police chief spokesperson Deependra Pathak said, “We have investigated the case professionally. We will defend the case in the court and do a proper follow-up of the court proceedings.” Mr Tharoor married Sunanda Pushkar in 2010 and their high-profile relationship was often in the media glare. On the night of January 17, 2014, two days after she had a very public spat with Pakistani journalist Mehn Tarar, Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead in Delhi’s Leela Palace Hotel. She had taken to Twitter to accuse Ms Tarar of having an affair with her husband.

The cause of death was stated to be poisoning and on January 1, 2015, a case was registered by the Delhi Police against unknown persons under IPC Section 302 (murder).

In its chargesheet submitted to the court last month, the Delhi Police has charged Mr Tharoor under Sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. Under Section 498A, the maximum punishment is up to three years of imprisonment, while jail term of up to 10 years is prescribed under Section 306. Mr Tharoor has never been arrested in the case.