As mystery shrouds the death of Sunanda Pushkar, her brother Colonel Rajesh Pushkar ruled out rumours of marital discord between the couple. In his statement recorded before Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM—Vasant Vihar sub-division) Alok Sharma on Sunday evening, Pushkar appeared to agree with the initial post-mortem report that suggests it was a case of sudden, unnatural death. He also expressed apprehension that a drug overdose might have caused her death.
Union Minister Shashi Tharoor too recorded his statement under Section 164 CrPC before the SDM on Sunday. Tharoor was at the SDM’s office in Kapashera Border for around 30 minutes. The details of Tharoor’s statement were not divulged. Earlier in the day, Tharoor had written to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and sought to expedite the probe into his wife’s death.
In his statement recorded before the SDM, Rajesh Pushkar told the judicial officer: “There was no marital discord between them and I also came to know about the alleged affair of Shashi Tharoor with a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar following the social media spat between my sister and Mehr Tarar.”
Rajesh Pushkar also stated that he spoke to his sister a few days ago and she was apparently happy. “I don’t think that she has committed suicide or it was a murder. I just came to know through Sunanda’s caretaker, Narayan Swami, that she had stopped taking proper meals for the last five days and was only consuming coconut water. She had been taking sleeping pills constantly and had also started smoking excessively,” he said.
The SDM also recorded the statement of Tharoor’s personal assistant, Rajkumar Sharma and consultant, Shiv Kumar as both were present with Tharoor when he reached The leela Palace hotel on Friday. The final autopsy report will be available in a few days, but sources said that it could be a case of drug overdose. However, a final picture would emerge only after toxicological analysis and a complete visco-pathological examination.
Meanwhile, TV journalist Nalini Singh on Sunday also recorded her statement before the SDM and said that Sunanda Pushkar had been distraught and was crying over the phone when she spoke to her and they discussed Shashi Tharoor and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.
“Sunanda called me at 12.10 am on January 17. The call lasted around seven minutes and the conversation was about that (Tharoor and Tarar’s alleged affair). She was very distraught, crying but she steadied herself in the middle,” Singh told the SDM. Singh also said that they discussed the e-mails exchanged between Tharoor and Tarar. “She was under the impression that she was very ill, she told me that she had been diagnosed with stomach TB, it was late at night and maybe she said it would be cancer now,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, in his letter to the Home Minister, Tharoor wrote: “In the midst of my mourning, I have finally had a chance to catch up with the media reports and am horrified to read the reckless speculation rampant there. I am appealing to you to issue instructions to the relevant authorities to expedite their investigation and come to a rapid conclusion so that the truth emerges at the earliest. I pledge full and unstinting cooperation. Nothing short of the truth will end the indignity to which my wife and I are being subject at a time when all I seek is to be allowed to grieve in private with my near and dear ones,” he said.