NEW DELHI: Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court said that the accused was discharged and asked him to file a bond. Tharoor thanked the judge, and said it was "an absolute torture for last seven-and-a-half-years" and that it was a “great relief”. Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, told the court that they will be filing the bond today or tomorrow.

During the arguments, while police had sought framing of various charges, including 306 (abetment of suicide), senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, told the court that the SIT investigation was conducted by the SIT completely exonerated the politician of all the charges leveled against him.

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel suite in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.

Tharoor was the main accused in the matter according to the Delhi Police. The former union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charge-sheeted by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was granted bail on July 5, 2018.

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel recently reserved the order after prosecution and defense counsel concluded their arguments on the issue of framing of charges.

Earlier, Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava stressed that Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty, leading to her bad health. The Public Prosecutor also argued that it was not an accidental death and relied on the post mortem report which suggested that the cause of death is poisoning which could be oral or injected.

Srivastava had also said that due to the mental cruelty caused to Pushkar, her health became worse. He further added that Pushkar was not facing any health issues earlier but problems begun due to "stress and betrayal".

Tharoor"s Defence counsel and Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa said that prosecutors were not able to establish evidence against the leader and the theory of injecting poison is in the air and cannot be admissible.

Tharoor"s lawyer also read the statement by Sunanda"s son recorded under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in which he had said, "In the mortuary of AIIMS, I asked the doctor who conducted the post mortem about the case of death, he (doctor) responded that there is no foul play or poisoning but the same doctor later went to the media and said that death is due to poisoning. Shashi cannot harm even a fly."