Treat Pushkar email as ‘dying declaration’, police tells 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.”

Congress MP Tharoor had earlier this month described the police’s charge sheet as “preposterous” and said he intended to “contest it vigorously”.

The police attached a copy of the email in their charge sheet filed against 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 charge sheet in which they accused the Thiruvananthapuram MP of 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 in a luxury hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014. 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. He 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 charge sheet on May 14, the Congress leader took to twitter and called the charge sheet “preposterous”. In a series of tweets, he said, “I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet & 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.