Sunanda Pushkar death case: Court reserves order on Shashi Tharoor's anticipatory bail plea

New Delhi: A court here on Wednesday reserved its order on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's anticipatory bail plea for Thursday in a case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP has already been summoned as an accused in the case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar reserved the judgment after the Delhi Police opposed Tharoor's anticipatory bail plea, saying he might flee the country. The Congress leader had moved the court yesterday, seeking anticipatory bail.

In his plea, Tharoor had submitted that the chargesheet in the case was filed and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had categorically stated that the probe was concluded and that his custodial interrogation was not required.

The court had summoned the Congress leader as an accused in the case on June 5, asking him to appear before it on July 7 and observing that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against him. Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room in the city on the night of January 17, 2014.

Tharoor has been charged under sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but has not been arrested in the case.

The Delhi Police, in its chargesheet filed in the case on May 14, had accused Tharoor of abetting Pushkar's suicide and told the court that he should be summoned as an accused in the case, claiming that there was sufficient evidence against him.

In the nearly 3,000-page chargesheet, the police had named Tharoor as the only accused, while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty.