A Delhi court on Thursday transferred the Sunanda Pushkar death case, in which her husband and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has been chargesheeted 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.

On 14 May, the Delhi Police had 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 had booked Tharoor under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 498 A (cruelty in a marriage). Tharoor’s name appears in the ‘Column 2’ of the chargesheet, which makes him the most likely suspect.

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.

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.

Mystery shrouded Sunanda’s death from the night she was found dead. While police then suspected that she might have committed suicide, the possibility of prescription drug overdose was also not ruled out since Pushkar was undergoing medical treatment at the time of her death.

Even the FIR in the case could be registered after about a year of her death.

The police sealed the suite where Sunanda was found dead and took the hotel management nearly three to get it de-sealed through court.

Tharoor was questioned a number of times during the course of investigations.

The suite of the South Delhi hotel, where Pushkar had died, was sealed by the police on the night of her death for investigation. In its plea, the hotel had claimed that due to the sealing of the suite, it had suffered a loss of over Rs 50 lakh in three years.

In October, 2017, the Delhi High Court had dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking 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 or a PIL.

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 (SIT) on April 20 had told the apex 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.