A Delhi sessions court will begin hearing a trial on 21 February in the Sunanda Pushkar death case in which Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has been charged with abentment to suicide, reported The Indian Express.
The case against Tharoor was sent to a sessions court on Monday.
PTI reported that Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal sent the the case to Additional Sessions Judge Arun Bhardwaj since the offence under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code was triable by a sessions judge.
India Today reported that the court also dismissed a plea by BJP leader Subramanaian Swamy to “assist the court”.
The court also directed Delhi police to preserve vigilance report in the matter.
The maximum punishment for the offence is 10 years of imprisonment.
Tharoor, former Union minister and Pushkar’s husband, has been charged under sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but has not been arrested in the case.
Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of 17 January, 2014. The couple were staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.
(With inputs from PTI)