The police on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it was not relying on Sunanda Pushkar’s tweets made on micro-blogging site Twitter in the case related to her death in which her husband Shashi Tharoor is facing abetment to suicide and cruelty charges.
The police said Pushkar’s tweets were not part of the chargesheet, but clarified that the Congress MP may rely on them in putting up his defence as they are already in public domain.
The submission was made in response to a petition filed by Mr. Tharoor seeking direction to Twitter India to preserve the account and tweets made by his deceased wife. Mr. Tharoor said that the Twitter timeline and tweetswere of utmost importance in the case.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Mr. Tharoor, argued before Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri that perusal of the tweets would reflect Pushkar’s actual frame of mind, which is contrary to the prosecution case.
‘Positive frame of mind’
“The tweets of the deceased from the Twitter timeline show without any pale of doubt that the deceased was not having any ‘suicidal ideations’ as is sought to be alleged by the prosecution,” Mr. Tharoor’s plea said.
On Delhi Police’s submission that the tweets are not on record as it has not seen them, Mr. Pahwa argued that the investigating agency cannot choose to close its eyes when it comes to the evidence that dilutes its case.
The High Court, after hearing the submission, asked the police to make its submissions on the points raised by Mr. Tharoor and posted the case for hearing on September 18.
In his petition, Mr. Tharoor said he intends to bring on record the timeline and Pushkar’s tweets during the trial to exonerate himself from the false charges.
“Rather the deceased was in a positive frame of mind and was quite optimistic about her relationship with the petitioner,” the plea said. It added that despite overwhelming material, the police sought to conclude that the deceased allegedly took her own life due to differences with him.
