Indian politician Tharoor files for anticipatory bail ahead of court appearance

Indian politician Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday (3) filed for an anticipatory bail in a Delhi court in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

Tharoor is an accused party and he faces trial on July 7.

Tharoor's counsel believes the Congress MP getting bail is "inevitable".

"SIT (Special Investigation Team) categorically stated in charge sheet that probe is concluded, and no custodial interrogation of any person is required. Law is very clear that if chargesheet is filed without arrest, bail is inevitable," Tharoor's counsel told ANI.

Tharoor's then wife Pushkar was found dead in Delhi's Leela Hotel four years ago.  According to the chargesheet, Pushkar was forced to take the extreme step of killing herself  by her husband. She died following an overdose of antidepressant pills, alprazolam (Alprax).

Just days before her death, Sunanda Pushkar reportedly told Tharoor that she had no wish to live.

In an email to her husband, Pushkar said she had lost her will to live and that all she prayed was for death, the Delhi police said in a 3,000-page charge-sheet accusing Tharoor of abetting her suicide.

“I have no desire to live… all I pray for is death,” Pushkar wrote in an email to her husband just nine days before she was found dead in her suite at a luxury hotel in Delhi.

Some 27 tablets of Alprax were found in her room but it is not clear how many she had. The charge-sheet has described Tharoor “as a husband (who) ignored Sunanda when she was sliding or slipping into depression and she had Alprax,” the chargesheet said. They had frequent fights and “though injury marks were not serious, they are consistent with claims that the couple fought.”

Tharoor has also been accused of ignoring “her calls and disconnected her calls in the days before her death,” the special probe team found.

Tharoor has called the charges of abetting his wife’s suicide “preposterous”.

“I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet &intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part,” Tharoor tweeted.