NEW DELHI, Jan 17: Sunanda Pushkar, who was upset over an alleged extra-marital affair between her Minister husband Shashi Tharoor and a Pakistani journalist, was found dead in a five-star hotel room which police believe is a case of suicide.
The body of 52-year-old Pushkar, a woman entrepreneur who married Tharoor in August 2010, was found in mysterious circumstances in luxury Leela Palace hotel in South Delhi, top police sources said.
The Minister informed us of the death and it seems it is a case of suicide, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Pushkar and Tharoor were at the centre of a raging controversy in the last two days when reports emerged that she was upset over reported text and tweet messages between her husband and Mehr Tarar, Pakistani journalist.
Tharoor was present at the day-long AICC session which ended around 5 pm.
Minister’s Private Secretary Abinav Kumar told reporters that Tharoor and Pushkar were staying in a hotel suite since yesterday as some painting work was on at home. The Minister was away throughout the day attending the AICC.
When he came back around 8:30 pm, he found the door of her suite locked from the inside. “She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found she was dead,” he said.
Kumar said there was “no sign of foul play” but whether it was natural death or not cannot be said now.”The cause of death and the time of death, we cannot say now,” he said.
This was the third marriage for both of them. She had a 21-year-old son, Shiv Menon, from her second marriage.
The couple, who were always in some sort of controversy or the other, reportedly fought over the alleged affair which came to light when Tharoor claimed his twitter handle was hacked.
He made the declaration after purported controversial tweets were posted from his accounts and were believed to be addressed to the Pakistan-based journalist.
Pushkar had told couple of newspapers that she was considering divorce from Tharoor in the wake of the alleged extra-marital affair. On her part, Mehr denied Pushkar’s allegations of her stalking Tharoor or having an affair with him.
However, after the media carried the war of words on the twitter, the couple issued a statement yesterday, claiming they were happily married. (PTI)
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