Sunanda Pushkar death: Court to hear arguments on charges against Shashi Tharoor on August 20

A Delhi court on Thursday said it will hear from August 20 arguments on charges likely to be framed against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, PTI reported. Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj fixed the date of the hearing while disposing off Tharoor’s plea seeking an order that the prosecution and the Delhi Police not share the chargesheet or any document with any person not related to the case.

Pushkar was found dead in a New Delhi hotel in January 2014. Tharoor is accused of abetting his wife’s suicide. Tharoor has claimed the charges against him are “preposterous and baseless” and a product of a “malicious and vindictive campaign”. In March, Tharoor accused former All India Institute of Medical Sciences forensic chief Sudhir Gupta of hiding the autopsy report of his wife Pushkar.

In response to Tharoor’s plea, the court said on Thursday that there were already provisions in the law, which restrain the police and prosecution from sharing any documents with persons not related to the case. “No further direction is required to be passed restraining them from sharing the chargesheet and documents of this case with any third person or stranger,” the court said.

However, Judge Bharadwaj allowed the prosecution to consult experts. “The experts consulted by the prosecution shall not share the documents of this charge sheet with any other third party or stranger and the prosecution shall serve a copy of this order on such expert consulted by it for information and compliance by the said expert,” the court said. “The prosecution shall maintain a record of experts consulted by it with whom it would be sharing the documents of this case and produce before the court, if so directed.”

The Delhi Police had opposed Tharoor’s petition, arguing that they needed to consult experts to discuss various things related to the case.