Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014
New Delhi:
Delhi High Court requested Delhi police response to appeal by congressman Shashi Tharoor on Monday to take steps to preserve his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s Twitter account and tweets before her death in 2014 .
Judge Manoj Kumar Ohri issued a notice to the police on the request that instructed the investigating officer (IO) in the case of writing to Twitter to secure Ms. Pushkar’s inactive Twitter account because her tweets are extremely relevant for the criminal trial.
The court, which conducted the hearing by videoconference, registered the case for a new hearing on July 15.
Lead counsel Vikas Pahwa and attorney Gaurav Gupta, representing Shashi Tharoor, submitted that reading Sunanda Pushkar’s tweets would reflect his actual state of mind, which is contrary to the prosecution’s record.
The lawyer claimed that she had never had any suicidal thoughts as manifested in the series of tweets withheld by Delhi police at the trial court.
Mr. Tharoor, in his request, said that Sunanda Pushkar’s tweets and Twitter timeline were of utmost importance in the case and since she is not alive, there is a fear that they may be deleted, denying Shashi Tharoor’s crucial right to exonerate himself from the alleged charges against him.
The request was made in a pending motion asking the police to file certain tweets from Ms. Pushkar with the trial court.
Tharoor, the only accused in the death of his wife, asked police to take steps to preserve the social media and tweets account by asking Twitter India to keep Ms. Pushkar’s account until the stay of proceedings before the Court of First Instance.
The advocacy referred to Twitter’s policies that allow it to delete user accounts that have been inactive for an extended period of time.
“In addition, in some cases, if an authorized person or a close relative of a deceased person contacts Twitter, the deceased person’s account may be deactivated. In such cases, account deletion or account deactivation, tweets and the content of Twitter the timeline is lost forever, “he said.
The Former Union Minister Was Charged By Delhi Police Under Relevant Sections Of The Indian Penal Code Of Accusing The Husband Or Relative Of A Woman’s Husband Of Subjecting Her To Cruelty And Complicity In suicide.
The maximum penalty for the offense listed in the indictment is 10 years’ imprisonment. However, if convicted of murder, the maximum penalty is the death penalty while the minimum penalty is life imprisonment.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite at the Leela Palace hotel in Chanakyapuri in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
The couple were staying at the hotel because Mr. Tharoor’s official bungalow was being renovated at that time.
