Sunanda died ‘unnatural’ death, autopsy shows

New Delhi: The wife of Indian minister Shashi Tharoor, found dead in a luxury hotel after accusing her husband of being unfaithful, suffered an “unnatural, sudden death”, a doctor who performed an autopsy on her body said on Saturday.

“More tests” are needed to determine the cause of Sunanda Pushkar’s death and the final results will not be known for two to three days, Sudhir Gupta, one of three doctors who performed the autopsy, told reporters.

He added Pushkar’s body had “some physical injuries”, but it was unclear whether they were related to her death.

Gupta, who is the Head of Forensic Sciences Department at the All India Institute of Medical Science (Aiims), dismissed reporters’ questions about whether the preliminary report pointed towards suicide, a drug overdose or murder, saying they had yet to give a final report.

However, he said the autopsy report would focus on investigating the sudden unnatural death from a medical angle.

“There were certain injuries on the body...Basically in medico-legal cases, the number of injuries does not matter. Whether these injuries were related to fatality or not matters,” he said.

Police sources, however, indicated a drug overdose could be the reason for Pushkar’s death. Sources also revealed that the couple had a “verbal spat” during their flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi.

In the hotel too they were seen arguing, according to police. “The hotel’s housekeeping staff said that the couple were seen arguing in the lobby,” police sources said.

Pushkar’s body was cremated on Saturday evening at the Lodhi crematorium in south Delhi, near the couple’s residence in Lodhi Estate.

Tharoor found his wife dead in a luxury hotel room on Friday, just two days after she accused him on Twitter and in other media of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar.

“There were no signs of any foul play,” Tharoor’s press assistant Abhinav Kumar told reporters. “She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found she was dead.”

Tharoor was admitted on Saturday to the same top government hospital where the autopsy was performed on his wife’s body after complaining of “general chest discomfort”, a hospital spokeswoman told reporters. But his test results were normal and he was later released.

Pushkar, 52, a Dubai-based entrepreneur before marrying Tharoor in 2010, had been taking medications for various illnesses, including tuberculosis, according to local media. But her doctors told broadcaster NDTV that her condition was not life-threatening.

In one of her last tweets, which later appeared to have been removed, she wrote: “Whatever is destined to happen will happen, will go smiling.”

Indian social media users called it the first “death by Twitter”, with the drama being played out over the micro-blogging site. The death of Pushkar, described by friends as the “life of any party”, sent shockwaves through New Delhi’s social set.

The couple appeared deeply in love when they wed and were a glamorous pair on the social scene, but the rumour mill had been abuzz for months with talk of marital problems.

Events began unfolding late on Wednesday when curious messages appeared on the Twitter account of the suave thrice-married Tharoor, a former high-flying UN diplomat, novelist and junior foreign minister.

They showed private exchanges purportedly between the 57-year-old minister (@shashitharoor) and Pakistani journalist Tarar (@mehrtarar), in which she professed her love for him and he said his wife had discovered their relationship.

Tharoor, known as “Mr Twitter” with over two million followers, quickly responded by saying his account was “hacked”, but Pushkar spoke to newspapers saying she sent the messages.

Pushkar then accused Tarar of “stalking” her husband and trying to “break” her marriage when she was away for medical treatment. She also told media that she was considering divorce from Tharoor in the wake of the alleged extra-marital affair.

Seeking to draw a line under the Twitter row, Tharoor issued a joint statement on Thursday in which he blamed unauthorised tweets and distorted media reports for the “unseemly controversy”. The statement said the couple were “happily married”.

Cricket-loving Tharoor and his wife, the mother of an adult son from a former marriage, had been staying at the hotel since Thursday while work was being done to their home.

Television anchor Sagarika Ghose said she spoke to Pushkar on Friday, saying she appeared depressed and was sobbing uncontrollably.

Tharoor, a thrice-married father of grown sons, spent three decades in the UN where he was beaten to the post of secretary general by Ban Ki-moon. The author then quit the UN and entered Indian politics in 2008 as a ruling Congress party MP.

Tharoor’s son, Ishaan, a journalist at Time magazine, requested “that everyone please respect our family’s privacy”.