Shashi Tharoor gets protection from arrest in Sunanda Pushkar case
The court also said that Tharoor cannot travel abroad without prior permission of the court and cannot tamper with evidence, witness.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the case related to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in which he has already been summoned as an accused.
The Patiala House Court also said that the Thiruvananthapuram MP cannot travel abroad without prior permission of the court and cannot tamper with the evidence and witness.
Tharoor will also have to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
Delhi's Patiala House Court says that Shashi Tharoor
Reacting to the development, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told news agency ANI, “There is nothing for Shashi Tharoor to celebrate. He is not in Tihar jail, he can sit with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, they are also bail-wallas”.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar on Wednesday reserved the judgment after the Delhi Police opposed Tharoor's anticipatory bail plea, saying he might flee the country.
The Congress leader had moved the court on Tuesday, seeking anticipatory bail.
In his plea, Tharoor had submitted that the charge sheet in the case was filed and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had categorically stated that the probe was concluded and that his custodial interrogation was not required.
The court had summoned the Congress leader as an accused in the case on June 5, asking him to appear before it on July 7 and observing that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against him.
Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. Tharoor has been charged under sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but has not been arrested in the case.
The Delhi Police, in its chargesheet filed in the case on May 14, had accused Tharoor of abetting Pushkar's suicide and told the court that he should be summoned as an accused in the case, claiming that there was sufficient evidence against him.
In the nearly 3,000-page charge sheet, the police had named Tharoor as the only accused, while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty.