Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor said on Friday he is troubled by the Delhi police’s conclusion that his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death was a murder.
Nobody in his family had reason to believe that she had been murdered, Tharoor told a five-minute-long press briefing at Guruvayur near Thrissur in Kerala. He had written to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi, raising “a number of concerns and questions” about the investigation, Tharoor said.
However, he also offered his cooperation, as well as that of his staff and his deceased wife’s staff, to the investigation, he added. Calling for a speedy, fair and professional investigation bringing the truth out, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said there should be no pre-determined approach to the probe. This was the first time that Tharoor spoke to the press since the Delhi police filed an FIR in the case earlier this week.
He said he had been undergoing Ayurvedic treatment at a healthcare centre near Guruvayur for a fortnight. He had kept silent on his wife’s death for nearly a year as there was a police investigation going on, he stated, adding he did not want polemics in public.
Tharoor said he was deeply pained by the unnecessary public controversies, the misinformation and the sometimes “outright lies” about the death. Pushkar’s death is his “personal tragedy”, he said, and urged the media to show a little “human decency.” “I lost my wife and I was not allowed to mourn in peace,” he said.
Tharoor, who did not answer any questions from the media, said he stood by his statements.
PTI reports: Delhi police have said they will be able to provide some “definitive input” on the case in three-four days.
The police is planning to question Mehr Tarar, the Pakistani journalist over whom Pushkar fought with Tharoor before her death. A questionnaire is being prepared which will be sent to her via email and replies will be sought, police sources associated with the investigation said today.
Meanwhile, Tharoor’s domestic help Narayan Singh told investigators that the couple had been fighting over another woman besides Tarar days before her death, the sources said.