Indian Politician Shashi Tharoor Charged With Abetting Wife’s Suicide

The Delhi Police has charged Indian politician Shashi Tharoor with abetment to suicide over the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014, PTI reported. The police, in a charge sheet filed before metropolitan magistrate Dharmendra Singh on May 14, also alleged that the Congress leader subjected his wife to cruelty. The charge sheet, which urged the court to summon Tharoor as an accused, will be considered on May 24.

Tharoor has been charged under under Sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

The charge sheet also said that Pushkar died within three years, three months and 15 days of her marriage with the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram. The couple got married on Aug. 22, 2010 at Tharoor’s ancestral home at Elavanchery in Kerala.

Pushkar, an Indian-origin businesswoman with Canadian citizenship, was found dead at a Delhi hotel on Jan. 17, 2014.

Tharoor has called the charge sheet “preposterous” and questioned the police’s methods of investigation. He tweeted: “I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet and intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. ”

He added: “If this is conclusion arrived at after over four years of investigation, it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. In Oct 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the Delhi High Court that they have not found anything against anyone and now in 6 months they say that I have abetted a suicide. Unbelievable!”

1/2 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, (contd.)

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 14, 2018

2/2) it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. In oct 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the DelhiHighCourt that they have not found anything against anyone & now in 6 months they say that I have abetted a suicide. unbelievable!

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 14, 2018

Pushkar, 51, was found dead at a 5-star hotel — Leela Palace — in South Delhi on the night of Jan. 17, 2014. This happened days after she publicly accused Tharoor of having an affair with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. The police had questioned the politician on the circumstances under which Pushkar left him at Delhi airport and checked into the hotel. It was alleged that the couple had a disagreement during a flight from Kerala to Delhi. The suite, numbered 345, was sealed that night for investigation and de-sealed last month, the Times of India reported.

The police claimed at first that Pushkar was poisoned, and registered a murder case in January 2015 under IPC Section 302 (murder). They did not name any suspect at the time.

The special investigation team looking into the case told the Supreme Court last month that a draft final report had been prepared after conducting “thorough professional and scientific investigations” and that it would be submitted in the concerned trial court after “legal scrutiny.”

Pushkar was a sales director in the Dubai-based TECOM Investments, and a co-owner of the India-based Rendezvous Sports World, a cricket franchise in the Indian Premier League. She emigrated to Canada for her son’s speech therapy in the 1990s. The child was born after her second marriage. Her marriage to Tharoor was the third one for both of them.