No, this is not duplicate of issue5179. That issue described handle was
leaked when exception occurred. But this issue is not *leak*. See
following code.

import subprocess, os, sys
file = open("filename", "w")
try:
    proc = subprocess.Popen("nosuchprogram", stdout=file)
except OSError:
    file.close()
    sys.exc_clear() # here we go....
    os.remove("filename") # now we can delete file!

subprocess is implemented using sp_handle_type in PC/_subprocess.c
(windows). This object is in exception stack frame(?), so handle lives
until another exception occurs or explicitly sys.exc_clear() is called.