Sunanda death case: Delhi police pushes for prosecution of Tharoor on murder charge

New Delhi, August 31, 2019: 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.

“Please frame sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty), 306 (abetment of suicide) or in alternative 302 (murder) IPC against the accused (Tharoor),” the probe agency told special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar.

Senior public prosecutor Atul Srivastava made the submissions during arguments on framing of charges in the case.

The former Union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charged by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

Reading out a statement of the couple’s domestics help, who is one of the witnesses in the case, the prosecutor said that the couple had fight over a girl named ‘Katy’ and some Blackberry messages.

The prosecutor said that before her death, Pushkar wanted to address a press conference on the IPL issue and had said “I will not leave him (Tharoor)”.

The witness had told police that one year prior to the demise, the couple used to fight a lot.

The agency told the court that Pushkar was “distressed” and “felt betrayed” in her marital life.

Police told the court that Pushkar was suffering from mental agony due to a strained relationship with her husband. She had a scuffle with her husband and had various injury marks few days before her death, they said.

Police accused Tharoor of torturing his wife which abetted her to commit suicide.