A Delhi court on Thursday transferred the Sunanda Pushkar death case, in which her husband and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had been charge-sheeted for abetting her suicide, to a special court designated to try lawmakers.
Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmendra Singh transferred the case to Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who will take up the matter on May 28.
"Since he is a sitting Member of Parliament, matter is being sent to the special designated court for politicians, that is ACMM Samar Vishal. Matter be taken up on May 28," the court said.
The Delhi Police had on May 14 accused Tharoor, the Lok Sabha MP representing Thiruvananthapuram, of abetting Pushkar's suicide and told a city court that he should be summoned as an accused in the four-and-half year-old case, claiming there was sufficient evidence against him.
In a nearly 3,000-page charge-sheet, the police has named Tharoor as the only accused, while also alleging that he had subjected his wife to cruelty. It had also urged the court to summon Tharoor as an accused.
The couple's domestic servant, Narayan Singh, has been named one of the key witnesses in the case.
Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel room on the night of January 17, 2014.
The Congress leader has been charged under sections 498 A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Under section 498A, the maximum punishment is up to three years of imprisonment, while jail term up to 10 years is prescribed under section 306.
"It is presumed that if she has committed suicide, she must have been subjected to cruelty before death. Court may take cognisance of this fact that it is a case of abetment as the death has taken place within seven years of the marriage, and under the law a case of abetment is made out," Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had told the court.
Under Section 113A of the Indian Evidence Act, a court "may presume, having regard to all the other circumstances of the case, that suicide had been abetted by her husband or by such relative of her husband" if she kills herself within seven years from the date of her marriage.
The charge-sheet, which includes several annexures including medical reports, said that Pushkar died within four years of her marriage with Tharoor. The couple had entered into wedlock on August 22, 2010.
The suite of the South Delhi hotel, where Pushkar had died, was sealed by the police on the night of her death for investigation.
An FIR was registered by Delhi Police on January 1, 2015, against unknown persons under IPC section 302 (murder).
According to prosecution sources, the charge-sheet has mentioned that Pushkar was allegedly subjected to mental as well as physical cruelty. Tharoor has not been arrested in the case.
The copy of the charge-sheet was not made public immediately and it is not known as to what weighed with the police to omit the charge of murder, which was initially in the FIR when it was filed against unknown persons.
The Delhi High Court had last year in October 26 dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the death of Pushkar, terming his PIL as a "textbook example of a political interest litigation," instead of public interest litigation.
Later, Swamy had moved the Supreme Court against the High Court order. The top court had then asked him to satisfy it on the question of maintainability of his plea.
The special investigation team on April 20 had told the Supreme Court that a draft final report has been prepared after conducting "thorough professional and scientific investigations" in the case relating to the death of Congress MP 's wife.