Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has once again found himself in serious trouble after it was established that poisoning was the cause of death, as stated in a charge sheet filed by Delhi Police in the Sunanda Puskar murder case. Many sensational details were revealed in the 3000 page charge sheet which named Mr. Tharoor as the only accused and alleged that he had subjected his wife to cruelty. It also includes a mail written by his wife 9 days before her death on 9 January 2014. The mail reads “I don’t care about the tests. I have no will to live. All I pray is death”
Sunanada Puskar was the third wife of Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, who died under suspicious circumstances in The Leela Palace hotel on 17th January 2014. The Delhi police filed charges under sections 306 and 498A of the IPC referring to ‘Abetment of suicide’ and ‘Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty’ respectively. The Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava told the court that “Cause of death is poisoning…We have enough evidence of cruelty. Her dead body was found with ante-mortem injuries.” It must be noted that the death of Sunanda Pushkar took place in very suspicious circumstances. She was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over her husband Shashi Tharoor’s alleged extra marital affair with the Pakistani journalist.
It has been alleged by many, including senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, that crucial evidence into this case had been destroyed during the UPA regime. Indications of the investigation being botched up first appeared in January 2016, when the then Delhi police commissioner had stated that Sunanda Pushkar might have been poisoned. An AIIMS medical board member had also come to the conclusion that poisoning might have been a possible cause of death. Finally, a special investigation team of the Delhi police conducted a probe into the mysterious death and a chargesheet was filed earlier this month.
The next hearing will be on June 5 in the Delhi fast track court, when Mr Tharoor will also be summoned. It has been alleged by many, including senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, that crucial evidence into this case had been destroyed during the UPA regime. Indications of the investigation being botched up first appeared in January 2016, when the then Delhi police commissioner had stated that Sunanda Pushkar might have been poisoned. An AIIMS medical board member had also come to the conclusion that poisoning might have been a possible cause of death. Finally, a special investigation team of the Delhi police conducted a probe into the mysterious death and a charge sheet was filed earlier this month.
With this development, it seems that the Sunanda Pushkar case is finally moving in the direction of a reasonable conclusion. It has been almost four years since her death took place and the police started investigation into the case. However, once the charge sheet was filed things started moving pretty quickly. Therefore, justice will no longer be denied and we can expect that finally there will be speedy justice in the case. This should also be seen as another victory for Subramanian Swamy who had been pressing for a trial into this case against Shashi Tharoor. When no one was speaking about this case, it was Swamy who pointed out that there was something amiss about Sunanda Pushkar’s death that must be investigated.
In November last year, BJP leader and reputed advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking special courts to try cases against MPs and MLAs, which would naturally include Shashi Tharoor. It also sought a lifelong ban on convicted criminals from forming a political party or becoming political office-bearers. The court had directed the centre to set up special courts in order to fast-track cases pending against legislators. The centre in its affidavit has proposed to set up 12 fast-track courts for this purpose. There are a total of 1,581 criminal cases pending against MPs and MLAs across the country. This proposal has been accepted by the Supreme Court. Therefore, it is now an admitted position that special courts designated for the purpose of fast-tracking criminal cases against legislators are perfectly legal and within the scope of the constitution. Legislators form a different class of citizens among themselves and speedy trial of criminal cases pending against them is in greater public interest so that criminal elements within the legislature are weeded out. As for Shashi, he is in whatever the fancy word for deep sh** is.
