The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice on a petition filed by Delhi Police, challenging the discharge given by the trial court to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in the death case of his wife Sunanda Pushar.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice to Tharoor on Delhi Police’s application for condonation of delay and listed the matter for further hearing on February 7.
Appearing for Tharoor, Senior Counsel Vikas Pahwa contended that Delhi Police had approached the High Court after a passage of more than 15 months.
Stating that the copy of the petition was not served to them, the lawyer alleged that the petitioner had deliberately used the e-mail id which was suspended by them.
He further said that there were orders from the lower court as well as the High Court that the records of the case should not be shared with any outside person because of the apprehension of a media trial.
He said as per Chapter 17 of the Delhi High Court Rules, the copy of record in criminal revisions is not provided to strangers to the case.
The High Court noted his submissions as well as those made by the Counsel of Delhi Police that the documents in the case would not be supplied to anyone who was not a party to the case.
The Congress MP was accused of abetting the death of his wife and Industrialist Sunanda Pushkar, whose body was found in a hotel room of the national capital in mysterious circumstances in January, 2014.
The Delhi Police had initially treated it as a murder case and registered an FIR under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Later, Tharoor was charged under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498A (cruelty by husband).
In August, 2021, Special Judge Geetanjali Goel had discharged Tharoor after observing that it found no evidence to show that the Congress leader had acted in a manner which could provoke, encourage or incite his wife Sunanda to commit suicide.
The court had noted that there was ‘nothing’ on record to prove the allegation against Tharoor.
(Case title: State of NCT of Delhi vs Shashi Tharoor)