Tharoor gets clean chit in Sunanda death case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday dropped all charges against Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor in the case of his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s alleged suicide, seven years after she was found dead in a luxury hotel room in the Capital.
Special judge Geetanjali Goel exonerated Tharoor of all charges and gave him a clean chit in the matter. A detailed order is awaited.
“The accused is discharged,” the judge said in a virtual hearing.
During the hearing, Tharoor thanked the judge: “Grateful Your Honour. It has been seven and a half years of absolute torture. I really appreciate it”.
Later, in a statement, he said that justice has been done and it will allow everyone in the family to mourn Pushkar in peace.
“In our justice system, the process is all too often the punishment. Nevertheless, the fact that justice has been done, at last, will allow all of us in the family to mourn Sunanda in peace,” Tharoor said.
He said that the order brought a significant conclusion to the “long nightmare which had enveloped me after the tragic passing of my late wife Sunanda”.
“I have weathered dozens of unfounded accusations and media vilification patiently, sustained by my faith in the Indian judiciary, which today stands vindicated,” the former Union minister said.
Public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, appearing for the police, said that they were yet to get a copy of the court’s order. “We have not got the order copy and only after analysing the issues we will think of filing an appeal with the approval of the concerned department,” he told HT.
Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel on the night of January 17, 2014, following which the police sealed the room and registered an FIR. The couple was staying at the hotel because Tharoor’s official bungalow was being renovated.
The case quickly grabbed national headlines and sparked a political tussle between the then ruling Congress party and its primary challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party, months before general elections.
Delhi Police registered the first FIR on January 1, 2015 against unidentified persons. It questioned Tharoor and others, and conducted a polygraph test on six people, including the minister’s help and staff.
On May 15, 2018, Delhi Police filed a 3,000-page charge sheet against Tharoor under sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. The maximum punishment for the offence is 10 years of imprisonment.
He denied all charges, calling them “preposterous and motivated”. “I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet & intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part... If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of investigation it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police,” he had tweeted at the time.
Tharoor was granted anticipatory bail in July that year. He was never arrested in the case.
During the trial, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, argued that no case of abetment to suicide was made out against his client. Pahwa told the court that doctors were not able to ascertain the cause of death or establish whether Pushkar had indeed died by suicide and, hence, the prosecution case was nothing but “a figment of imagination of the police”.
Pahwa had earlier said the post-mortem examination and other medical reports allegedly established that it was neither a suicide nor homicide. He also said during the course of the investigation, there were a plethora of reports by experts before the investigating officer (IO) but there was “no definite opinion on the cause of death”.
Public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had stressed that Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty which led to poor health. Shrivastava also argued that it was not an accidental death and relied on the post mortem report that suggested the cause of death was poisoning.
He also said due to the alleged mental cruelty caused to Pushkar, her health worsened. The prosecutor further added that Pushkar was earlier not facing any health issue but problems began due to “stress and betrayal”.
After the judgment on Wednesday, Pahwa said that the charges levelled by the police were absurd and preposterous, and that even the most essential ingredients of the offences were not present. “All the reports of various medical boards including psychological autopsy reports exonerated Dr Shashi Tharoor from the charges of homicide or suicide. The charge sheet filed was without any basis,” he said.
“There was no complaint by anyone for harassment or abetment to suicide by any of the family members or friends of late Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor. I am happy that at last after seven years, justice has prevailed and he has been honourably discharged from all the charges made by Delhi Police against him,” he said.
In the last seven years, three city police commissioners supervised the investigation -- BS Bassi, Alok Verma and Amulya Patnaik.
The Congress welcomed the judgment.
“The truth always wins. The constant abuse, innuendos and slander of our colleague Shashi Tharoor by BJP and its crony TV anchors comes to naught,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
Tharoor’s party colleague Jairam Ramesh also spoke out in his support. “For seven years my friend and colleague Shashi Tharoor was harassed and subjected to vilification, abuse and mental torture. Today, he stands vindicated…,” he said in a tweet.