Sunanda Pushkar had injuries on body prior to death reveals prosecution
I have no desire to live...all I pray for is death." This is what Sunanda Pushkar wrote in an e-mail to her husband Shashi Tharoor nine days before she was found dead in a luxury hotel room here, the police told the court.
The police also said that Sunanda's death was due to poisoning and 27 tablets of Alprax were found in her room but it was not clear how many pills she had consumed.
While quoting from the charge sheet, the Delhi Police told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal that Sunanda had injuries on her body which were received prior to her death which is reflected in the post-mortem report.
In an e-mail sent to Tharoor on January 8, 2014, she had written, "I don't care about the test. I have no desire to live...all I pray for is death," the police claimed.
Sunanda's mail and messages on social media should be taken as a "dying declaration", the police told the court, which reserved for June 5 its order on whether to summon Tharoor as an accused in the case.
Referring to Section 113A of the Indian Evidence Act, Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said, "It is presumed that if she has committed suicide, she must have been subjected to cruelty before death. Court may take cognisance of this fact that it is a case of abetment, as the death has taken place within seven years of the marriage, and under the law, a case of abetment is made out." Under Section 113A of the Act, a court "may presume, having regard to all the other circumstances of the case, that ... suicide had been abetted by her husband or by such relative of her husband" if she kills herself within seven years from the date of her marriage.
To
drive
home
the
point
that
Pushkar
was
subjected
to
cruelty,
he
also
alleged
that
Tharoor
did
not
bother
to
take
care
of
his
ailing
wife
who
was
suffering
from
high
fever.
He
said
that
Pushkar
used
to
write
poems,
the
contents
of
which
showed
that
everything
was
not
right
with
her.
The Delhi Police had on May 14 accused the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram of abetting Pushkar's suicide and urged the court that he should be summoned as an accused in the four-and-half year-old case, claiming there was sufficient evidence against him.
In a nearly 3,000-page charge sheet, the police has named Tharoor as the only accused while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty.
The couple's domestic servant, Narayan Singh, has been named one of the key witnesses in the case. Tharoor has not been arrested in the case.
Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a luxury hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
The
Congress
leader
has
been
charged
under
sections
498
A
(husband
or
his
relative
subjecting
a
woman
to
cruelty)
and
306
(abetment
of
suicide)
of
the
Indian
Penal
Code.
Under
section
498A,
the
maximum
punishment
is
up
to
three
years
of
imprisonment,
while
jail
term
of
up
to
10
years
is
prescribed
under
section
306.
The charge sheet, which includes several annexures including medical reports, said that Pushkar died within four years of her marriage with Tharoor. The couple had entered the wedlock on August 22, 2010.
The suite of the South Delhi hotel, where Pushkar had died, was sealed by the police on the night of her death for investigation. An FIR was registered by the police on January 1, 2015 against unknown persons under IPC section 302 (murder).
According to prosecution sources, the charge sheet has mentioned that Pushkar was allegedly subjected to mental as well as physical cruelty.
The special investigation team on April 20 had told the Supreme Court that a draft final report has been prepared after conducting "thorough professional and scientific investigations" in the case relating to the death of Congress MP's wife.