Delhi Police to court: Sunanda Pushkar was suffering from mental agony

Sunanda Pushkar had mental agony

Delhi Police on Tuesday told a court that Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar who was allegedly driven to commit suicide was suffering mental agony due to a strained relationship with her husband. She had a fight with him which resulted in injury marks a few days before her death. The police accused Tharoor of torturing his wife which forced her to commit suicide.

The Delhi Police charged the former Union Minister under Sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 ( abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The probe agency told judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar that the cause of Pushkar's death was poisoning and 15 injury marks were found on various parts of her body. Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava told the court that Pushkar was upset because of a fight with her husband. The prosecutor also added Tharoor's relationship with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar also added to Sunanda's mental agony.

Pushkar's friend and journalist Nalini Singh gave a statement which said, "I got a call from Sunanda who was crying and sobbing. I told her Mehr Tarar was nothing and she was everything. She wanted to take revenge from Tharoor and Terar. There was a lot of bad publicity in the media. She told she helped Tharoor a lot in IPL matter. She had found some messages between Tarar and Tharoor. She refused to go to their house and instead went to the Leela hotel. The relation between the couple was very bad."

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of Hotel Leela on the night of January 17, 2014, where the couple were staying as their bungalow was being renovated.

(with PTI inputs)

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies