On December 1, more than a year after a Delhi court cleared Congress MP Shashi Tharoor of all charges in connection with the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, Delhi Police filed an appeal with the Delhi High Court. On Thursday, the plea was heard by single-judge Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, who issued a notice to Tharoor on the Delhi Police's application seeking a stay of proceedings for the delay in filing the revision petition.

Tharoor was charged with assisting in the death of Pushkar, who was discovered dead from the inside of a hotel room in January 2014. Though the case was initially investigated as a murder, with a FIR filed under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Tharoor was charged under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498A of the IPC (cruelty by husband).

While releasing Tharoor, the court noted that there was no evidence that Tharoor had acted in a way that provoked, encouraged, or incited Pushkar to commit suicide.

According to special judge Geetanjali Goel, there was "nothing on record" to prove that Tharoor acted to irritate or annoy Pushkar until she responded, or that he "strongly persuaded or advised" her to commit suicide.

Case Title: State of NCT of Delhi v Shashi Tharoor

Citation: CRL.REV.P.  819 / 2022