Delhi court asks police to hand over a few documents to Shashi Tharoor: Sunanda Pushkar Murder Case

A court in Delhi on Saturday directed the police to hand over certain documents related to Sunanda Pushkar’s death to her husband Shashi Tharoor.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued the directions after the Congress leader’s lawyer Vikas Pahwa said certain items of electronic evidence handed over by the prosecution were not in good condition. The court fixed the next hearing on December 1 after public prosecutor Atul Srivastava told the court that new copies will be provided to Tharoor.

In August, the Delhi Police gave Tharoor several documents, including statements of witnesses, after the Congress leader filed a petition in the court.

Pushkar was found dead at a suite in the Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi on January 17, 2014. Tharoor has been charged under Sections 498A (a husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code, but has not been arrested. Tharoor has claimed the charges against him were “preposterous and baseless” and a product of a “malicious and vindictive campaign”.

On Wednesday, the Congress parliamentarian sent a legal notice to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for calling him “an accused in a murder case”. Tharoor said Prasad’s comments were “false, malicious and defamatory”.