Sunanda Pushkar's case reflects badly on the functioning of our criminal justice system : Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon

Founder director of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru and the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, Prof. Dr. N.R.  Madhava Menon found fault with the Delhi Police for the ‘snail’s pace’ at which it moved to register a FIR in Sunanda Pushkar's case. 

File Picture: Prof. Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon

Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon also criticized the plan of Delhi Police to send the viscera samples of Pushkar abroad for further examination. 

"Now Delhi Police is saying that the forensic examination needs to be done abroad. Though, we have the capacity, it was not done properly. Even the All India Institute of Medical Sciences took one year to come out with a result. It is such as serious offence," said Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of 155th anniversary celebrations of Indian Penal Code conducted by the Directorate of Prosecution, Government of Kerala, in Kochi on Saturday.  

"It is not the personality involved. But it shows the way criminal justice is moving at a snail's pace even in the case of such a serious offence. It reflects badly", he added. 

Addressing public prosecutors on the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and criminal justice at the function, Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon stressed the point that the IPC demands a total revamp for ensuring speedy delivery of justice.

"We keep on amending rape law making it very difficult. We have noxious pieces of legislations. If the wife dies within seven years of marriage under unnatural circumstances, the husband is guilty of murder. Shashi Tharoor could have been guilty of murder on the face of it. Even a FIR was not registered in one year. It is a test case of how our criminal justice system functioning", Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon said. 

Sunanda Pushkar died of poisoning, says Delhi Police

In a sensational turn of events, the Delhi police have registered a case of murder against ‘unknown persons’ in connection with the death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor. This startling development comes nearly a year after Sunanda Pushkar, wife of former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead at a hotel room in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. 

File Picture: Sunanda Pushkar

Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, disclosing this development on Monday said that the conclusions made in a medical report submitted to them on December 29 confirmed that Pushkar was poisoned. He however hastened to add that it was not clear whether she had consumed the poison on her own or it was administered forcefully or by injection.

The report, prepared by the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences after studying the viscera report, contradicted the preliminary report, which concluded that it was caused by “overdose of Alprax.”

The new report, it is learnt, rules out the presence of Alprax in the body. 

“To ascertain the quantity of poison we will have to send the samples abroad as it cannot be done in the country. For sending the viscera samples outside India for tests, we are required to register a case which we have. Further, medical reports make it amply clear that it was a case of unnatural death and hence section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code has been invoked,” he said. 

The police also said that if needed, Mr. Tharoor could be called for questioning about the incident, which took place on January 17 last year.