New Delhi: Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a New Delhi hotel late on Friday evening. Notify that Sunanda Pushkar was the wife of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor.
The police said they were informed of Ms. Pushkar’s death by Dr. Tharoor’s personal staff, but offered no further details stating that the cause of death would be established only by post-mortem. Forensic sources said rigor mortis had set in, suggesting Ms. Pushkar passed away in the afternoon.
Police sources said that Sunanda Pushkar had been staying in Room 345 of the upmarket Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave since Thursday evening. She had arrived there after treatment for an undisclosed illness at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). The police said they got a call from the hotel informing them that Ms. Pushkar was lying dead inside her room.
Ms. Pushkar had tweeted on Friday morning, “So many issues diagnosed in KIMS that now who knows, when I got 2 go with joy, hastay hua jayegay [I’ll go laughing]”.
Highly-placed police sources said an inquiry into the cause of Ms. Pushkar’s death had been initiated by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate under Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code as the couple had been married for less than seven years.
A senior police officer said, “Under the SDM’s supervision, statements of the witnesses, including Dr. Tharoor’s, will be recorded and the post-mortem conducted. The SDM will send his inquiry report and on that basis, we will decide the further course of action.”
Police officials said that they will also examined the CCTV records of hotel.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up Dr. Tharoor and offered his condolences.
Dr. Tharoor’s personal aide Abhinav Kumar told journalists that the Minister had left the hotel room early on Friday morning to attend the All-India Congress Committee session.
Notify that the couple was staying in the hotel because their home was being fumigated. Dr. Tharoor returned from the AICC session around 8.15 p.m.
However the family of Sunanda Pushkar said that Sunanda was deeply stressed for the past several days after she dramatically tweeted messages suggesting a romantic relationship between her husband and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.
The most controversial message which had created a buzz in life of Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor was “I love you, Shashi Tharoor,” one purported message from Tarar to Tharoor read.
Later Shashi Tharoor had claimed tweeted that his account had been hacked and this message had been post by hacker. Pushkar however, said she had found the message on her husband’s personal phone.
Pakistani journalist Tarar had denied any romantic involvement with Tharoor on Thursday while talking with media. She said that she met the Minister just twice, first in April last year in New Delhi and then in June in Dubai.
She travelled again to New Delhi in December, to interview Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, but had not met with Tharoor as he was travelling at that time.
The controversy had also generated after both women engaged in personal attacks against each other over Twitter.
A journalist friend of Union Minister said, “She was under medication for some respiratory disorder and was being treated at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences. Her blood samples were recently sent to Germany for advance tests, and the results are expected on January 20. “Prima facie it appears to be a case of natural death,” a family friend said, adding that there were no signs of struggle, forced entry or any visible injury on Pushkar’s body.
Notify that Sunanda Pushkar had claimed few days before that her husband Shashi Tharoor had extra-marital affair with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar which has created a huge buzz in political streets as well as in the life of this couple. There are rumors that the extra marital affair of Shashi Tharoor also may be the reason of death of Sunanda Pushkar.
Bureau Report
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