Indian MP charged over wife’s 2014 death

An Indian MP and former UN diplomat has been charged with aiding his wife’s suicide in 2014.

Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian minister, tweeted to say he intended to “vigorously” contest the “preposterous charges” against him relating to Sunanda Pushkar’s unexplained death.

The death was initially treated as suicide but police later said she had been murdered, without naming a suspect.

Police in Delhi have now charged Mr Tharoor with abetment to suicide and cruelty to his spouse, according to reports. Mr Tharoor, an MP with India’s main opposition Congress party, married Ms Pushkar, a former Dubai-based businesswoman, in 2010. She was found dead in a five-star hotel in Delhi on 17 January 2014.

The cause of death is still unclear. The first postmortem report after her death suggested she may have died of a drug overdose – reports said Ms Pushkar had been on medication.