Shashi Tharoor & His Wife's Death

[Yithian]

I've kept half an eye on this as I've read a small chunk of Shashi Tharoor's journalistic output (couldn't stomach a whole book; he writes like a man who has learned lots of clever words and is determined to use them no matter what). That said, literary faults do not a murderer make, but are these charges and the long campaign that preceded them truly political in nature? There's a lot of missing detail about the precise nature of his wife's death and her behaviour beforehand; if anybody has seen any more iluminating reports I'd be interested to see them. One odd strand is that she accused Mehr Tarar, the Pakistani journalist she believed to be stalking her husband (more likely having an affair with) of being an ISI agent--and now she's dead.

Indian court formally charges Shashi Tharoor over wife's death
By Sugam Pokharel, CNN

Updated at 1210 GMT (2010 HKT) June 5, 2018

Indian politician and writer Shashi Tharoor has been accused of abetting in his wife's 2014 suicide.

New Delhi (CNN) — An Indian court has formally charged Shashi Tharoor, one of India's most prominent politicians, for abetting his wife Sunanda Puskhar's suicide, his lawyer told CNN on Tuesday.

Vikas Pahwa said Tharoor had been ordered to attend a preliminary hearing on July 7.

No warrants have been issued, meaning Tharoor, a former top UN diplomat and best-selling author turned member of parliament for India's opposition Congress Party, doesn't currently face arrest. He is currently on a book tour in Britain.

Tharoor's wife's suicide in 2014 was a high-profile case which gripped the country.

Pushkar, 51, was found dead in her room in a luxury Delhi hotel, prompting frenzied media coverage and speculation about the cause of her death, which was initially labeled "unnatural" and "sudden" by doctors.

The couple had been married for less than seven years when she died, triggering an automatic investigation under Indian law, which resulted in police finally recommending charges against Tharoor in May.

Abetting a suicide carries a possible prison term of up to 10 years in India.

In a statement Tuesday, Tharoor said the charges were "preposterous and baseless, the product of a malicious and vindictive campaign against myself."

[DENIALS SNIPPED]

A few days before Puskhar's death, reports emerged alleging that Tharoor had had an affair with a journalist from Pakistan. Indian media reported that Pushkar had hacked into her husband's Twitter account and tweeted about the alleged affair.

The journalist in question dismissed the allegations. Tharoor and Pushkar also released a joint statement, saying that they were "happily married."​

Full Article:
https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/06/05/asia/india-tharoor-wife-suicide-intl/index.html

 

[Yithian]

Wikipedia has a good account of some of the intrigue:

Shashi Tharoor discovered her body, when she did not wake up from her sleep in the evening. He informed the Delhi Police, who recovered the body from the hotel and sent it for postmortem. According to initial reports, Sunanda was suspected to have committed suicide. Later reports stated that the cause of death was unnatural; the doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences gave a preliminary autopsy report that revealed injury marks on her body. They said that these injuries may not be the cause of death. The autopsy indicated that she died of drug overdose, most likely a combination of sedatives, other strong medicines and probably alcohol. An investigation has been ordered by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to examine the cause of poisoning and to ascertain if it was murder or suicide. Her body was cremated at Lodhi Crematorium in South Delhi.

Doctors at KIMS Hospital Trivandrum, where she had been hospitalized for three days a few days earlier said that Sunanda did not have serious health problems. However, Sunanda had hinted about her death, hours before her body was recovered from the hotel.

On 1 July 2014, controversy over her death deepened when AIIMS doctor Sudhir Gupta claimed that he was pressured to give a false report in the case. On 10 October, the medical team probing her death concluded that she died of poisoning. On 6 January 2015, the Delhi Police reported that Sunanda was murdered and filed FIR (Yith: a formal statement that a crime has occurred) in the regard.

Subramanian Swamy, a politician of the BJP, has tried to fight this case against Tharoor in January 2015. On 20 May 2015 a trial court allowed the Delhi Police to conduct lie detector test on three suspects related to her death. The case became a talking point again in 2017 after the release of a series of secret video tapes by Republic TV in connection to Sunanda's death. Key alleged claims included:

(a) Sunanda's body was moved from room No. 307 to 345 of Leela indicating that the murder scene and body was tampered with before the investigation began.

(b) Shashi Tharoor had re-visited the hotel after leaving it at 6.30 am, and had hid this piece of information when investigated.

(c) Taped evidence emerged of the Shashi and Sunanda having "fought all night" on the day of her murder

(d) On 10 October 2014, Tharoor tried to influence the 'HM' (Yith: Home Minister) through Rajan Rao, a Delhi-based operative. Rajan Rao is the same individual who had previously claimed that he was Shashi Tharoor's "friend" and had also claimed that Shashi Tharoor's ex-OSD (Yith a civil servant) had called him on the day Sunanda was found dead. Tharoor denied all these allegations and sued Republic TV and its anchor Arnab Goswami for defamation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor

Edit: a little digging brings up unverified allegations of a Weinsteinian variety.​

 

[Yithian]

He's been cleared, but there are a lot of threads left untied:

Sunanda Pushkar case: Shashi Tharoor cleared of wife's murder
By Zoya Mateen
BBC News, Delhi

Indian MP and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor has been cleared of all charges related to aiding his wife's suicide.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in the suite of a five-star hotel in Delhi on 17 January 2014.

Her death was initially treated as suicide but police in Delhi later said she had been murdered.

In 2018, they charged Mr Tharoor with abetment to suicide and cruelty to his spouse - a charge he denied.

A court in Delhi has now exonerated him of all charges citing lack of evidence.

[...]

The first post-mortem report suggested she may have died of a drug overdose, but subsequent reports have referred to "poisoning", "mysterious injection marks" and, in one case, a "deep bite" on her palm.

FULL ARTICLE
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58253494