NEW DELHI — Shashi Tharoor, one of India’s suavest and most influential opposition politicians, was charged on Monday with driving his wife to commit suicide, four years after she was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Mr. Tharoor has worked at a high level for the United Nations in New York, written more than a dozen books, including several widely praised novels, and served in the cabinet of a previous Indian government.

He was widely seen as prime minister material, but ever since his wife, Sunanda Pushkar, was found dead in a hotel room in 2014, he has faced a barrage of allegations, rumors and suspicions.

On Monday, police officials in New Delhi, the capital, said that they had “medico-legal and forensic evidence” tying Mr. Tharoor to his wife’s death, announcing that he had been charged with cruelty to a woman and abetting suicide.