The Delhi police on Monday filed a charge-sheet in the Patiala House Court regarding the case involving Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar. News channel NDTV, however, says that Tharoor has been charged for abetment to suicide.
The next date of hearing the case is May 24, ANI reported.
The report added that the charge-sheet was filed under section 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
According to sources quoted by News 18, with the charge sheet, Tharoor may either be charged with destruction of evidence or it could be a case of abetment to suicide. Sources said that it is unlikely that anyone would be charged for murder under Section 302 of IPC.
Earlier, DNA in an exclusive had reported that investigators knew right from the beginning that it was not a case of suicide. Sunanda Pushkar's body had been found in her suite (number 345) of Delhi’s five-star Hotel Leela Palace on January 17, 2014.
The Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Vasant Vihar, Alok Sharma, who inspected the scene of crime and conducted inquest proceedings, was of the view that it was not a suicide, clearly says a report prepared by then Deputy Commissioner of Police BS Jaiswal.
Not satisfied with the inquest proceedings, the SDM had ordered the Sarojini Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) to investigate the case as that of murder, says the report.
The decision was made based on the autopsy report that said: "The cause of death to the best of my knowledge and belief in this case is poisoning. The circumstantial evidence suggests to alprazolam poisoning.”
The report says that the injection marks were fresh. It also says the body had various scuffle marks. “These seem to have been caused due to scuffle between Sunanda Pushkar and her husband Shashi Tharoor as per the statement of their personal attendant Narain Singh,” says the report which was submitted to then Southern Delhi Range Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia, who had been told to personally monitor the case. The report was further submitted to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
