New Delhi : A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on July 7 as an accused in a case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death.
Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
Taking cognizance of the charge sheet, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said: “There exists sufficient grounds to proceed against Tharoor for commission of offences in the case.”
“I have heard the prosecutor. I have gone through and perused the charge sheet and the documents filed along with it. On the basis of police report (charge sheet), I take cognisance of offence of abetment of suicide of late Sunanda Pushkar and committing cruelty upon her by Dr Shashi Tharoor,” the judge added.
Tharoor in a statement said the charges against him are “preposterous, baseless,” and the “product of malicious, vindictive campaign”. The Lok Sabha MP from Tiruvananthapuram said he will continue to “vigorously” contest the charges against him, while adding that he maintains a “steadfast conviction that ultimately truth will prevail.”
Talking to reporters immediately after the court’s order, Tharoor’s lawyer Vikas Pahwa said no offence was made out against the Congress leader and the prosecution’s case was “absurd and preposterous”.
In May, the Delhi police in its charge sheet had accused Shasi Tharoor, of abetting Pushkar’s suicide and told a city court that he should be summoned as an accused in the four-and-half year-old case, saying that there was sufficient evidence against him.
In a nearly 3,000-page charge sheet, the police named Tharoor as the only accused in the Sunanda Pushkar death case while alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty.
The Congress leader has been charged under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
