New Delhi, July 7: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was on Saturday granted regular bail by a Delhi court in the Sunanda Pushkar death case in view of the anticipatory bail granted to him by a sessions court earlier this week.
Tharoor appeared before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal in compliance with the summons issued to him as an accused booked for abetting the suicide of Sunanda Pushkar and subjecting her to cruelty.
Tharoor appeared before the ACMM and informed him that he has already been granted anticipatory bail by the sessions court following which he was granted regular bail on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh and one surety of like amount.
Tharoor opposed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking permission to assist the police in the case. His counsel said Swamy has no locus in the case and said he would file a written reply to Swamy’s application. The Delhi Police also opposed Swamy’s plea.
Background:
On 17 January 2014, a day after the Twitter controversy, Sunanda was found dead in room number 345 of the Leela Palace hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, where the couple had moved to, as their house was being renovated and painted. Shashi Tharoor discovered her body when she did not wake up from her sleep in the evening. He informed the Delhi Police, who recovered the body from the hotel and sent it for postmortem. According to initial reports, Sunanda was suspected to have committed suicide. Later reports stated that the cause of death was unnatural; the doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences gave a preliminary autopsy report that revealed injury marks on her body. They said that these injuries may or may not be the cause of death. The autopsy indicated that she died of drug overdose, most likely a combination of sedatives, other strong medicines and probably alcohol. An investigation has been ordered by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to examine the cause of poisoning and to ascertain if it was murder or suicide.
On 10 October 2014, the medical team probing her death concluded that she died of poisoning. On 6 January 2015, Delhi Police reported that Sunanda was murdered and filed FIR in the regard. Pushkar's domestic help alleged that Pushkar often fought with Shashi Tharoor and days before her murder, she had threatened Tharoor that she would "disclose everything" and as such, he was "finished".
Subramanian Swamy, a BJP politician, tried to fight this case against Shashi Tharoor in January 2015. On 20 May 2015, a trial court allowed Delhi Police to conduct lie detector test on 3 suspects related to her death case