As a Delhi court heard the case on the framing of charges against Shashi Tharoor in the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, the prosecution went all out to show that there were multiple injuries on her body and including many due to injections that were several days old.
“The post mortem report further suggests that there was a scuffle between the two parties caused by blunt force,” it said. This is the first time the court is hearing the matter of framing of charges against Tharoor. The public prosecutor has argued in court that there is evidence that Sunanda Pushkar may have been beaten up repeatedly. The prosecutor also said that although the cause of death was poisoning, according to the post-mortem report, Pushkar’s body had several injuries varying between 12 hours to 4 days old.
There were pieces of glasses recovered from the spot further suggesting chances of scuffle and the opinion of the doctors as been stated that the cause of death occurred due to poisoning.
The counsel of the Shashi Tharoor requested for the camera trial as the revelation could jeopardise the case without proper evidence.
The counsel further stated in court that Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor were married for 3 years and 4 months and this was the third marriage of both parties.
The lawyer added that under IPC sections, unnatural death within 7 years of marriage is suspicious.
Former Union minister, Shashi Tharoor has been charged under Sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC, but has not been arrested in the case.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.
—India Legal Bureau