Tharoor charged with ‘abetment to suicide’, Cong calls it ‘conspiracy’

The Congress on Monday said the charge-sheet filed against party MP Shashi Tharoor, accusing him of abetting the suicide of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, is politically motivated and would be contested “vigorously”.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the charge-sheet filed by the Delhi Police was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to malign and defame Tharoor.

“There can be no more falsehood in this charge except that a conspiratorial BJP leadership, including the Prime Minister, and I say that with a sense of responsibility, and the Delhi Police are seeking revenge on Shashi Tharoor,” Surjewala told a press conference here.

Tharoor took to Twitter to describe the charge-sheet against him as “preposterous” and that he intended to contest it vigorously.

“In October 2017, the law officer made a statement in the Delhi High Court that they have not found anything against anyone & now in six months they say that I have abetted a suicide. Unbelievable,” Tharoor said.

Surjewala accused the BJP leadership of slapping the abetment to suicide charge against Tharoor after having failed to frame him for the murder of his wife.

“There is no suicide note, there is no statement made by the deceased before the police or magistrate that somebody was forcing her to commit suicide … there is no statement of any witness or member of the family, or her son or any other person related to her or Tharoor.

“Where is the charge coming from? This is coming from the factory of lies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is threatening Congress leaders that he will seek revenge against them,” Surjewala said rejecting the charges against Tharoor.

Four years after the mysterious death of Sunanda at a five-star hotel here, the Delhi Police on Monday accused Tharoor of abetting his wife's suicide in a charge sheet filed in a local court.

Sunanda was found dead in a luxury hotel here on January 17, 2014.