A Delhi court on Tuesday admitted abetment of suicide charges against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor over the 2014 death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, saying there was "sufficient grounds to proceed" against the politician.

Taking cognisance of the Delhi Police chargesheet, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal asked Tharoor to appear before him on July 7.

"I have gone through and perused the chargesheet along with the documents filed along with it. Cognisance taken on offence regarding abetment to suicide of late Sunanda Pushkar and for committing cruelty upon her. On the basis of the police report, I take cognisance abetment of suicide punishable under 306 IPC and cruelty under 498A IPC. There exists sufficient grounds to proceed against Shashi Tharoor for commission of offence," Vishal said.

The magistrate also issued a notice to the prosecution for a written reply on BJP MP Subramanian Swamy's application.

Shashi Tharoor
Congress MP Shashi TharoorReuters

On May 14, the Delhi Police had filed a chargesheet against the Congress leader. It was filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh at the Patiala House court.

The Day Sunanda Pushkar Died

Pushkar was found dead inside the room of a prominent five-star hotel in New Delhi on January 17, 2014. According to initial reports, it was Tharoor who found Pushkar's body and informed the Delhi police.

Her body was soon sent for postmortem. The initial reports suggested that Pushkar may have taken her own life. However, a few injury marks were also found on her body that made the authorities believe that it may not have been a suicide.

Following this, the autopsy report suggested that Pushkar may have died after overdosing on drugs. Investigations ensued for a long time to ascertain whether the cause of death was suicide or murder.

Based on such reports, the police had registered a murder case on Pushkar's death and refrained from naming any accused.