Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was Wednesday discharged
by a Delhi court in a case related to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. The
case hogged headlines for over seven years and saw Tharoor face a 3,000-page chargesheet
filed against him by the Delhi Police. It all started in 2014 with Tharoor’s wife Sunanda
Pushkar and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar’s spat on Twitter. Next day, on January 17, Pushkar was found
dead under mysterious circumstances at Hotel Leela in New Delhi.

ALSO READ: ‘Nation wants to know’ types must apologise: Omar Abdullah backs Tharoor

Delhi Police, which initially filed a murder case against
unknown persons in January 2015, later charged Tharoor with abetting the
suicide of Pushkar and subjecting her to cruelty.

In May 2018, the Delhi court transferred the case to a
special court designated to deal with cases of MPs and MLAs. The prosecution
urged court to take cognisance of Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 498A
(cruelty) against Tharoor. Finding “sufficient grounds” to proceed
against Tharoor, court took cognisance of the charges and summoned him to
appear before it on July 7 that year.

ALSO READ: Shashi Tharoor cleared of charges in death case of wife Sunanda Pushkar

Tharoor was granted protection by the court from arrest as it observed police had failed to bring anything on record to show if he had tried to
influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.

In July 2018, Tharoor appeared before magistrate court
following summons, and was granted regular bail. The court committed the case
to Sessions Court for trial in February 2019.

In May 2019, court dismissed Rajya Sabha MP and BJP
leader Subramaniam Swamy’s plea seeking to bring on record a police report on alleged
evidence tampering by Tharoor.

In April 2021, court reserved its order on framing of
charges against Tharoor, a month after Tharoor’s lawyers sought his discharge
from the case on grounds of no conclusive cause of death even after seven
years.

Earlier, a postmortem conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi, had
said Pushkar’s death appeared to be a case of “unnatural, sudden death” and
pointed to over dozen injury marks on her body. It also noted that “nominal
traces” of an anti-anxiety drug in her body, while ruling out drug overdose.