Sunanda had expressed desire to die

Public prosecutor says there is sufficient evidence to proceed against Tharoor

Delhi Police tell court that they are treating her mail, social media messages to husband Tharoor as ‘dying declaration’ |

In an email sent to Congress Lok Sabha member and her husband Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar had expressed her desire to die, Delhi Police told a court here yesterday.

Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal that there was sufficient evidence to proceed against Tharoor.

The prosecutor informed the court that Pushkar was depressed and, in an email, written on January 8, 2014 to Tharoor, she had expressed her desire to die.

“I have no will to live. All I pray for is death,” prosecutor Shrivastava read the relevant line of the email written by Pushkar to Tharoor.

He told the court that the cause of her death was poisoning.

After hearing the submission, the court set June 5 to deliver its order on accepting the charge sheet against Tharoor.

On May 14, the Delhi Police chargesheeted Tharoor under Sections 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to abetment to suicide and cruelty to wife, which entails a jail term that could extend up to 10 years.

Pushkar, 51, was found dead in her suite at Leela Hotel in south Delhi on January 17, 2014, days after she alleged that her husband was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.