Indian MP Shashi Tharoor cleared of involvement in wife’s death

Mr Tharoor’s wife was found dead in a luxury hotel suite in central Delhi in January 2014

Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar at their wedding reception in New Delhi in 2010 (AP/ File photo)

A Delhi court on Wednesday cleared Indian politician Shashi Tharoor of charges linking him to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, ending his seven-year-long legal battle.

Shortly after the judgment, Mr Tharoor, a key member of India’s opposition Congress party who had also served as an under-secretary general at the UN for nearly five years, thanked the court and the judge for bringing a “significant conclusion to the long nightmare.”

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel suite in central Delhi on the night of January 17 2014, sending shockwaves across the country as Mr Tharoor was a serving minister in the federal government at that time. Mr Tharoor and his wife had moved into the hotel suite as his residence was under renovation.

A year later, the Delhi police filed a case against Mr Tharoor, charging him with abetment to suicide and cruelty.

Mr Tharoor, a Congress MP from the south Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram, released a statement on Wednesday, stating that he has consistently described the charges by the Delhi police as preposterous.

“This brings a significant conclusion to the long nightmare which had enveloped me after the tragic passing of my late wife Sunanda. I have weathered dozens of unfounded accusations and media vilification patiently, sustained by my faith in the Indian judiciary, which today stands vindicated,” the 65-year-old MP said.

The judgment, Mr Tharoor said, will allow him and his family to “mourn Sunanda in peace.”

Days before her death, tweets by Pushkar suggested differences between the couple amid reports of Mr Tharoor’s involvement with a journalist from Pakistan.

In court, Mr Tharoor maintained that Pushkar’s death was neither a suicide nor homicide as per the evidence, and should be considered an accident, Indian news channel NDTV reported.

Pushkar, Mr Tharoor’s lawyers said, was struggling with several medical conditions at the time of her death, the report added.

The mysterious death of Pushkar four years after her marriage to the parliamentarian became a sensational case in India with political rivals often targeting Mr Tharoor for his alleged involvement in the case.