A Delhi Court has dismissed Shashi Tharoor’s plea to bring his deceased wife Sunanda Pushkar’s Twitter data on court’s record for psychological evaluation of the former Union Minister’s wife for conditions preceding her death.
Tharoor’s counsel had pressed for a psychological autopsy through Twitter logs to clear him of charges of abetment to suicide and domestic violence, for which he is facing prosecution before the Rouse Avenue Court.
Vikas Pahwa, Senior Advocate appearing for Tharoor, had moved an application before the court under Section 91 of CrPC stating that the prosecution has not provided all the necessary documents before the court and asked the court to direct the prosecution to provide the data inferred from the Twitter handle of Pushkar.
Atul Shrivastava, the public prosecutor, had objected to the application that an accused cannot move any such application as the Court itself can give direction to the prosecution to supply additional documents if required in the interest of justice. Pahwa had countered by mentioning a judgment that in case the evidence is of the sterling quality, the court upon satisfaction could allow it to be added in the evidence.
It was further said that there had been numerous exchange of the letter between US Department of Justice and Home Ministry wherein the latter has requested for the retrieval of data. He claimed that since the prosecution has data and that data is crucial to the case, the application should be allowed.
Read court’s order here (contains case history)
— India Legal Bureau
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