Sunanda Pushkar death case: Shashi Tharoor allowed to travel abroad, condition is Rs 2 lakh fixed deposit

The Patiala House Court directed senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor to furnish a fixed deposit receipt of Rs 2 lakh before the court which will be refunded after his return from the trip.

New Delhi: In a relief to senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, Delhi's Patiala House Court on Wednesday allowed him to travel abroad, weeks after travel restrictions had been imposed on him following his involvement in a case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death. However, the court directed him to furnish a fixed deposit receipt of Rs 2 lakh before the court which will be refunded after his return from the trip. 

Tharoor had earlier sought permission from the court to go to Canada for a few days starting from August 10, 2018.

Earlier in July, Tharoor was granted an anticipatory bail by a Delhi court in the Sunanda Pushkar death case. Tharoor had restrictions imposed on him asking him not to travel abroad without prior permission of the court. The court had also directed him not to tamper with the evidence and witness of the case. The Congress leader was also asked to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.

In a chargesheet filed by the police, they had named Tharoor as the only accused, while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty but this prompted him to term the charges as 'preposterous and baseless.

The police had filed a 3000-page chargesheet before Metropolitan Magistrate under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. 

But Tharoor has maintained that he is innocent of the charges levelled against him but the Delhi court found 'sufficient grounds' to proceed against him.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple's domestic servant, Narayan Singh, was named one of the key witnesses in the case. 

After Tharoor was granted an anticipatory bail, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy launched a scathing attack saying that the court putting restrictions on Tharoor's foreign travel will bar him from meeting his girlfriends in various parts of the world. "Yes, he can't go out of the country and see all his girlfriends in various parts of the world," Subramanian Swamy told news agency ANI.