Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Indian minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in her hotel room in New Delhi's 'The Leela Palace' on Friday. Her body was found two days after her Twitter spat with Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar a over an alleged affair with the minister.
On Saturday evening, around 5.30pm the minister took his wife's body for cremation to the Lodhi crematorium in south Delhi, situated near the couple's residence.
It was later discovered in the autopsy that the death was "sudden and unnatural death". The AIIMS doctors stated "injury marks" were found on Pushkar's body, but did not confirm any links to the death.
Indian MP Shashi Tharoor, centre, with relatives and friends as they carry the body of Tharoor's wife Sunanda to the cremation ceremony. Photo: AFP/smh.com.au
The story preceding the death baffles as on Wednesday evening, a series of emotional tweets from the Twitter handle of Minister and Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor began to create a flutter on the net. They were all directed at Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar, who had interviewed Tharoor and J-K Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah last year.
While Tharoor tweeted that his account had been hacked, his wife Sunanda Pushkar immediately tweeted out that she had been tweeting using his account. She was upset with the messages being exchanged by Tharoor with Mehr Tarar, a Pakistani columnist.
In a statement given to NDTV, Tarar denied the accusations, “In her tweets, she has accused me both of stalking him and of having an affair with him. How can it be both? It just shows there are wild allegations. Her tweets to me are so crazy that all I can do is laugh. Maybe she took offense to the fact that I have praised him so much. But I am very transparent – anything that I have said is on my Twitter timeline, for the whole world to see.”
Then Sunanda later told the Economic Times, "Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets. I cannot tolerate this. This is a Pakistani woman who is an ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) agent, and she is stalking my husband. And you know how men are. He is flattered by the attention. I took upon myself the crimes of this man during IPL (Indian Premier League). I will not allow this to be done to me. I just can't tolerate this. I have nothing more to say."
After much drama, the Tharoors issued a joint statement on Thursday saying they were “much distressed” by the whole situation.
Tharoor left her at the hotel early on Friday to attend a Congress Party rally for leader Rahul Gandhi and later returned around 8pm. He sat in the lounge believing his wife was sleeping, but when he checked in at 8.30pm he found her dead, clad in her nightdress, lying on the bed.
Even though she had been treated in France for abdominal tuberculosis and lupus and had been admitted to hospital in India more recently, Sunanda's death left everyone dumbfounded. Many celebrities have openly expressed their shock.



We at ANOKHI MEDIA send our prayers and condolences to Sunanda's family.
Twitter feed screen captures from @Anupamkher, @TheShilpaShetty and @sonunigam
Featured Image:hindustantimes.com