Deepali Kalia-
On 27th July, a Delhi Court deferred the announcement of order on framing of charges against the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar Death Case till 18th August.
The hearing in the present case was adjourned by Special Judge Geetanjali Goel after a fresh application had been moved on the prosecution’s behalf.
The Court permitted the prosecution to file further submissions in the case.
Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, who was appearing for the State submitted that he wanted to bring to the Court’s notice some new judgments with regard to the framing of charges in the matter.
The Judge allowed the request and said, “I will not be entertaining any further applications. Order to be pronounced on August 18 at 11 AM.”
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has been accused by the police in its charge sheet of offences under Sections 498A (marital cruelty) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Congress MP will have to face trial if the Court assents to the framing of charges against him.
In January of 2014, Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a hotel room and the medical report had shown the presence of drugs in her body.
Initially, the investigation was carried out to ascertain whether it was murder or not but ultimately the police had filed a charge sheet for suicide.
Atul Shrivastava had asserted that Sunanda Pushkar had suffered mental cruelty at the hands of Tharoor and that it was not an accidental death as the post mortem report had indicated that poisoning was involved, which could’ve been through injection or orally.
On the other hand, Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa appearing for Shashi Tharoor argued that the theory of Sunanda Pushkar injecting poison because of cruelty by Tharoor was in the air and inadmissible and since no evidence has been established against the Congress MP, he should therefore be discharged.
Also Read: Delhi HC directs RBI to come up with Regulations for Online Lending Platforms