Highlight in the media over her marital problems, SunandaPushkar was found dead in her hotel room under mysterious circumstances on Friday night.
Barely 24 hours ago, Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor was tweeting to her followers and friends. She was all smiles and sharing light hearted jokes about her own marital woes. Even after the deep turmoil of confessing in the media that a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar was ‘stalking’ her husband, union minister Shashi Tharoor, she was admittedly “happy” in her married life.
And now she is dead. Sunanda’s body was found in her hotel room on Friday night.
The couple had checked into Delhi’s hotel Leela Kempenski on Thursday due to fumigation work going on at their home. Sunanda was allergic to dust and she was suffering from many medical complications, reportedly Lupus and stomach TB. She had come back to Delhi with Tharoor on Thursday itself from Kerela and was reportedly seen in wheelchair at the airport.
In one of her tweets, Sunanda had reportedly told her friends that the doctor in Kerela, where she was receiving Ayurvedic treatment, had given her one year for survival. While talking to them about her husband’s alleged affair with Tarar, Sunanda had shown fury saying that “vultures” were already around to take over her husband.
Her last tweet was a solace to her friends where she said that she was not afraid of death and that she “will go smiling”. On Friday morning she had tweeted: “So many issues diagnosed in KIMS that now who knows, when I got 2 go with joy, hastay hua jayegay”.
The tragic death of Sunanda, a self-made woman entrepreneur, raises many questions about her marriage and life. During the revealations about her marital problems, she had also alleged that the alleged lover of Tharoor, Tarar, was an ISI agent. She had claimed that she had all the e-mails and history of BBM chats to support her allegations.
Tarar is a journalist in Pakistan’s Daily Times and had met Tharoor in 2013. Tharoor had also her interview with Jammu and Kahmir chief minister mar Abdullah. Terar had publicly showed her admiration for Tharoor via her columns in her newspaper.
The rift between Sunanda and Tharror’s marriage had risen in 2013 itself when Tarar had visited India.
In the course of allegations which she made on Thursday, Sunanda had also spoken about IPL troubles that she had in 2010 following which Tharoor had married her.
She had told the media that she will “seek divorce” but changed her stance later on. The couple issued a joint public statement afterwards, which read:
“We are distressed by the unseemly controversy that has arisen about some unauthorised tweets from our Twitter accounts. Various distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda have appeared in the press. It appears that some personal and private comments responding to these unauthorised tweets — comments that were not intended for publication — have been misrepresented and led to some erroneous conclusions….Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest. We would be grateful if the media respects our privacy.”
But clearly she was not happy with the statement. Speaking her mind, which she always did, she told various media organsations that she was going to speak more about it on Friday night where her husband Tharoor will also join her.
Highly placed sources in the Congress had reportedly told various media channels that Sunanda had sent an electronic message to many people in Congress, whom she considered close, threatening that she will expose Tharoor. Highly disturbed by her allegations, Tharoor was seen talking to Congress leaders at AICC all day about helping him and mellowing Sunanda down.
She had also not been on talking terms with Tharoor ever since the revelations about his alleged affair. In the hotel Leela too, they had booked two separate suites for themselves. She had messaged her friends that she was “not able to take it anymore” that she has been cheated three times. She had also said in her messages that she was contemplating suicide.
It was after the AICC session, that rather than going to the Jaipur Literary Festival, Tharoor made the last minute amend and thought of staying with his ailing wife.
As per Tharoor’s personal assistant Abhinav Kumar, her room was locked from inside when Tharoor came back to the hotel. Thinking that Sunanda might be sleeping, he waited in the open area with a guest he had brought. After a while, when he decided to wake up his wife, there was no response to his repeated calls.
The hotel staff was called and the door was broke open only to find her body.
The police was called by Tharoor himself. He was quizzed too by the police late at night on Friday.
The circumstances under which she died are not known. The Delhi Police first thought the case to be of suicide but there was no suicide note fund in her room. Also, there were no external injuries on her. The police is also investigating the other angle of ‘poisioning’. Police has sent the body for post mortem in AIIMS.
Till the latest reports, the forensic department had said that the rigor mortis had set in and the time of death ascertained by the team is around Friday afternoon.
The tragic death of Sunanda has shocked her friends worldwide. Everyone remembers her as the perfect host with a warm smile on her face. She was respected for the hardships she had to suffer in order to single-handedly raise her child and make a successful career.
Her nemesis, Tarar, too was shocked and tweeted her sentiments out.
A section of people are anguished for she cannot accept the preliminary presumption of suicide. She was too full of life, they say. They are even indicating towards foul play, for she “obviously knew too much”.
Whatever the reasons of death be, will be made clear after post mortem. An inquiry into the cause of her 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.
It is goodbye to a colorful life of a lady who spoke her mind.
