Treat Pushkar’s last email to Tharoor as her ‘dying declaration’: Police to court
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Monday told a city court that an email sent by Sunanda Pushkar to her husband Shashi Tharoor, nine days before she was found dead in a south Delhi luxury hotel, saying she had no desire to live and all she prayed for is “death”, should be treated as a “dying declaration.”
Police have attached a copy of the email in their chargesheet they filed against Congress MP Tharoor.
The police also told court that Pushkar died because of poisoning and that 27 Alprax tablets were found in the hotel suite, but it was not clear how many pills she had consumed. The court has reserved for June 5 its order on whether to summon Tharoor as an accused in the case.
On May 14 this year, police filed a chargesheet in which they accused the member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram of cruelty and abetting Pushkar’s suicide. The couple’s domestic servant, Narayan Singh, has been named as one of the key witnesses in the case.
Pushkar, 51, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a city luxury hotel on January 17, 2014, days after a public Twitter spat where she accused her husband of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
In January 2015, a year after her death, police registered a case of murder after a medical report said that her death was unnatural and was caused due to poisoning.
Special public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said that Pushkar had written a two-line email, which read, “I don’t care about the test. I have no desire to live... all I pray for is death.” Shrivastava said there were ante-mortem injuries on Pushkar’s body that shows she was subjected to cruelty.
Shrivastava also alleged that police investigation revealed Tharoor did not bother to take care of his ailing wife who was suffering from high fever. Within hours of police filing the chargesheet on May 14, the Congress leader took to twitter and called the chargesheet “preposterous”.
In a series of tweets, he said, “I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous chargesheet & intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Pushkar believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of probe it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. In Oct 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the Delhi High Court that they have not found anything against anyone & now in 6 months they say that I have abetted a suicide. unbelievable!”
Referring to Section 113A of the Indian Evidence Act, Shrivastava said, “It is presumed that if she has committed suicide, she must have been subjected to cruelty before death. Court may take cognisance of this fact that it is a case of abetment, as the death has taken place within seven years of the marriage, and under the law, a case of abetment is made out.”