Chidambaram rubbishes charge against Shashi Tharoor as 'absurd'

A day after the Delhi police, in their chargesheet, named senior Congress Party leader Shashi Tharoor for abetting the suicide of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram rubbished the charge, calling it 'absurd'.

"Charge against Shashi Tharoor is absurd. The investigating agency has manufactured a case out of an unfortunate tragedy," he tweeted on Tuesday.

For those unversed, Sunanda was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a suite of a five-star hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

The Delhi Police has repeatedly come under fire for delaying the investigation into the case.However, the police, in their chargesheet filed before a Delhi court on Monday, named Tharoor as an accused, under sections 306 (Abetment of suicide) and 498A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Soon after, Tharoor took to Twitter to dismiss the charge as "preposterous".

"I have taken note of the filing of this preposterous charge sheet and intend to contest it vigorously. No one who knew Sunanda believes she would ever have committed suicide, let alone abetment on my part. If this is conclusion arrived at after 4+ yrs of investigation, (contd.)," he tweeted.

"It does not speak well of the methods or motivations of the Delhi Police. On October 17, the Law Officer made a statement in the Delhi High Court that they have not found anything against anyone and now in six months they say that I have abetted a suicide. unbelievable!" the tweet read.