A Delhi court on Wednesday cleared Congress MP Shashi Tharoor of charges in connection with the case involving the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. Pushkar died in 2014 and since then the case has been constantly discussed, dissected and debated by the media. Today, as Tharoor is discharged, we catch you up with what has happened over the past seven years.
When did Sunanda Pushkar die?
A day before she was found dead in her hotel room at the Leela Palace Hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014, Sunanda Pushkar had a war of tweets with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. Tarar allegedly had an affair with Shashi Tharoor. Police suspected suicide and the possibility of drug overdose was also probed.
How did a suicide turn into murder?
Reports said that the doctors who conducted Pushkar’s postmortem said that she had injury marks on her hands and an abrasion on her cheek. They also said that there was no sign of drug overdose.
When was Tharoor accused?
On January 1, 2015, an FIR was registered by the Delhi Police on charges of murder. Tharoor was not named, but he was brought in for question, the first time in 2016, a year later the FIR. Meanwhile, the police spoke to journalist Nalini Singh who was reportedly the last person to talk to Pushkar, and apparently, she was the one Pushkar asked to help retrieve texts between Trar and Tharoor.
On May 15, 2018, Delhi Police filed a charge sheet and arrayed Tharoor as accused of abetting the suicide of his wife, subjecting her to cruelty.
How has Tharoor reacted?
While the parties opposing the Indian National Congress have left no stone unturned to highlight this issue and make this not just political but the topic for prime time debates. But Tharoor has always maintained that he is innocent and that the court will also come to the same conclusion. Tharoor, on Wednesday, thanked the judge, and said it was "an absolute torture for last seven-and-a-half-years" and that it was a "great relief".
