Politician Charged With Abetting Wife’s Suicide

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Leader of Indian National Congress, writer and former UN official Shashi Tharoor  was named as accused in the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar whose body was found in a luxury hotel room in New Delhi on January 17, 2014.

Tharoor was attending a late Congress meeting in the capital and his party was ruling the country when the incident happened.

In a tweet, Tharoor called the 200-page chargesheet “preposterous” and said he will contest it “vigorously”. Delhi police alleged that Tharoor had subjected his wife to cruelty. They filed the charge sheet before metropolitan magistrate Dharmendra Singh who will consider it on May 24.


The charge sheet urged the court to summon Tharoor as an accused. It was filed under sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

Tharoor reacted to the filing of the charge sheet through a long tweet.

“I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet &intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of investigation it does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. In oct 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the Delhi High Court that they have not found anything against anyone & now in 6 months they say that I have abetted a suicide. unbelievable,” he said.

The magistrate will hear the case on May 24. The police have urged the court to summon Tharoor as an accused. He 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.