15 injury marks found on Sunanda Pushkar’s body, says Delhi police

PTI, Aug 21, 2019, 9:41 AM IST

New Delhi: Sunanda Pushkar, who was allegedly driven to commit suicide, was suffering from mental agony due to strained relationship with her husband and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, the Delhi Police on Tuesday told a court.

The police accused Tharoor of torturing his wife which abetted her to commit suicide.

The former Union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charged by the Delhi Police under Sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The probe agency told special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar that according to the postmortem, the cause of Sunanda Pushkar’s death was poisoning and 15 injury marks were found on various parts of her body — forearm, arms, leg, etc.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told the court that the Sunanda Pushkar was upset and suffering from mental agony due to the scuffle between the duo.

The submission was made while hearing arguments on framing of charges against Tharoor in the case related to Sunanda Pushkar’s death.

The prosecutor further told the court that Tharoor”s relation with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar also added to her mental agony.

The prosecutor also apprised the court about Sunanda Pushkar’s friend and journalist Nalini Singh’s statement, which is part of the charge sheet, that the relation between the couple was tense and bad.

“I got a call from Sunanda who was crying and sobbing. I told her Mehr Tarar was nothing and she was everything. She wanted to take revenge from Tharoor and Terar. There was a lot of bad publicity in media. She told she helped Tharoor a lot in IPL matter. She had found some messages between Tarar and Tharoor. She refused to go to their house and instead went to Leela hotel. The relation between the couple was very bad,” Singh had said in her statement.

The prosecutor also told the court that an e-mail written by Tharoor to Trar addressing her as “my darlingest” has also been found.

“Such type of language was used. There are various letter which shows how intimate Tharoor and Trar were to each other,” he said.

Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, refuted the submissions and said he was not aware of any such e-mail.

The case is now listed for next hearing on August 31.