Tharoor appears in Delhi court, gets regular bail
New Delhi, July 7 : Two days after he was granted anticipatory bail, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was given regular bail by a city court here on Saturday in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.
Tharoor personally appeared before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal at the Patiala House Courts following summons issued against him in June.
When Tharoor's counsel moved a plea seeking regular bail, the court said that there was no requirement for filing it as he was already granted anticipatory bail by a sessions court on Thursday.
The magisterial court accepted his bail bonds.
While granting him the anticipatory bail on July 5, the sessions court directed him not to leave the country without permission, nor to tamper with evidence or try to influence the witnesses.
The court has listed the matter for further hearing on July 26 directing Delhi Police to supply copy of charge sheet and other documents to the Congress leader.
Meanwhile, Tharoor opposed the application of BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has been carrying on a campaign in the case, for conducting the prosecution. Tharoor's counsel told the court that Swamy has no locus to contest the case.
On June 5, the court took cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the police.
Pushkar, 51, died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room in south Delhi on January 17, 2014, days after she alleged that Tharoor was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
On May 14, police charge-sheeted Tharoor under sections 306 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to abetment to suicide and cruelty to wife, which entails a jail term that could extend up to 10 years.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
