Probe suicide, murder angles in Sunanda Pushkar’s death, police told

NEW DELHI: A magistrate probing the death of Sunanda Pushkar has asked Delhi police to further investigate the case, including the possibility of suicide and murder.

Pushkar, the wife of junior minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead Friday night in a five-star hotel two days after she went public with accusations against a Pakistani journalist of stalking her husband and having an affair with him.

Sub-divisional magistrate Alok Sharma, who ascribed her death to poisoning, has directed the police to investigate thoroughly, adding that Pushkar’s family members did not suspect foul play in her death.

On Tuesday, the Congress party included Tharoor in its new list of spokespersons, a move seen as a vote of confidence in the minister.

Doctors at the Al l India Institute of Medical Sciences who conducted the autopsy on Pushkar had said her death was “sudden and unnatural” and was caused by drug poisoning.

AIIMS sources said the autopsy report submitted to the magistrate mentioned more than a dozen injury marks on Pushkar’s hands and a minor bruise on her left cheek which could be due to the use of “blunt force”. The report, however, ruled out death due to the injuries.

The autopsy report also said no food samples were found in Pushkar’s stomach, which doctors said, suggested that she had not been eating. Police sources said two strips of anti-depressant drug Alprazolam, commonly known as Alprax, were found in the hotel suite where she was found dead.