Shashi Tharoor appears in court in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
Highlights
- Shashi Tharoor appears in court in wife Sunanda Pushkar's death case
- Anticipatory bail converted to regular one after bail bond was furnished
- Next date of hearing and scrutiny of documents on July 26
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor appeared before a court in Delhi today in connection with his wife Sunanda Pushkar 's death case. The court converted the anticipatory bail to regular bail after Mr Tharoor furnished the bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
The Judge while granting bail said "it is not required to file a formal bail application as anticipatory bail had been granted by the sessions court."
Mr Tharoor's counsel and the prosecution opposed the applications moved by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, seeking the court's permission to allow him to assist the prosecution in the case and sought a report of vigilance inquiry conducted earlier.
Counsels for Mr Tharoor questioned Subramanian Swamy's locus standi in the case. The court has set July 26 as the next date of hearing and scrutiny of documents.
The court had on Thursday granted the former union minister protection from arrest in the case. The court had summoned Mr Tharoor after a 3000-page chargesheet was filed against him by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case.
While granting him anticipatory bail, the court said Mr Tharoor can't fly abroad without its permission. The SIT had opposed his anticipatory bail plea.
Last month the court said there were "sufficient grounds" to proceed against him on charges of cruelty and abetting suicide.
Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead in her suite at a five-star hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014, two days after accusing her husband on social media of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
Mr Tharoor, say investigators, "ignored and disconnected her calls in the days before her death." Sunanda Pushkar used the social media to reach him, but those messages were also ignored, says the charge-sheet.
Her last mails and messages on social media have been taken by the police as her dying declaration.
In his appeal for protection, Mr Tharoor said the charge-sheet was filed without any arrest. "The law is very clear that if the chargesheet is filed without arrest, bail is inevitable," said Mr Tharoor's lawyer.
The former union minister has called the charges "preposterous and baseless" and the product of a "malicious and vindictive campaign".