Tharoor moves Delhi HC, seeks directions to police to preserve Twitter account, tweets of Sunanda Pushkar

NEW DELHI: Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court, seeking direction to the Delhi Police to take steps including writing to 'Twitter India' to preserve the Twitter account of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, during the pendency of the trial.

The plea was moved by senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa representing Shashi Tharoor.

"The tweets/Twitter timeline of the deceased is of utmost importance in this present case. However, with the deceased not being alive now, there is a possible threat and reasonable apprehension that the Twitter account and the tweets therein, of the deceased, may be deleted. If this happens, it would extinguish a very crucial right of the petitioner to exonerate himself from the false charges levelled against him," said the plea.

The plea added that the petitioner has a right to a fair trial and it also entails that the police preserve such materials, documents and things, which are necessary for the adjudication of the case.

The plea stated that the petitioner has now discovered that Twitter has its own internal policies on inactive users and deceased users. As per these policies, which are available online, Twitter can delete the accounts of users, who have been inactive for a prolonged period of time.

The trial court had earlier dismissed the application of Shashi Tharoor seeking to incorporate the tweets of his wife Sunanda Pushkar before her death is put on record.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in New Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014. Tharoor was later charged under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including for the abetment to suicide and cruelty.

The lawmaker has been granted bail on a condition that he will seek prior permission of the court before travelling abroad.