New Delhi:
The prosecution on Sunanda Pushkar case told Delhi Court on Tuesday that the former union minister Shashi Tharoor had addressed Meher Tarar as "My darlingest" in letters written to her by the Congress leader. "There is a letter written by Tharoor to Tarar addressing her as 'My darlingest'. Such type of language was used. There are various letters which shows how intimate Tharoor and Tarar were to each other," said Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava while accusing Tharoor of cruelty.
Objecting to the reading of the letters, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, said that the letters are personal in nature and that the prosecution is only using a part of it, hence, they should be read in-camera.
Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar has posted the matter for hearing on August 31 while directing the prosecution to properly arrange all the documents in the case. The prosecution further told the court that there were 15 antemortem injuries on Pushkar's body.
"The post-mortem conducted by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) opined that the cause of death was poisoning. The report also says that there were 15 ante-mortem injuries on her body," the Public Prosecutor said while reading out the report.
The prosecutor also said that although the cause of death was poisoning, according to the post-mortem report, Pushkar's body had several injuries varying between 12 hours to 4 days old. The counsel further stated in court that Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor were married for 3 years and 4 months and this was the third marriage of both parties.
The lawyer added that under IPC sections, unnatural death within 7 years of marriage is suspicious. Former Union minister, Shashi Tharoor has been charged under Sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC, but has not been arrested in the case.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.
