Rubbishing various speculation surrounding his mother Sunanda Pushkar’s death, her son Shiv Menon on Wednesday said she was “too strong” to commit suicide and died due to an unfortunate combination of media stress, tensions and a wrong mix of different medication.
21-year-old Menon, Sunanda’s son from a previous marriage, said both Shashi Tharoor and his mother were “very much in love” despite their “occasional differences” and that he did not believe that the Union Minister was capable of harming her physically.
“What the media reports have been alleging and implying in regard to my mother’s death is not just untrue, it is outrageous. Anyone who knew my mother would simply know that she was too strong to commit suicide,” he said in a statement.
“I also do not believe that Shashi was capable of physically harming her, let alone the speculation that he could have taken her life,” he said.
52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi on Friday night, a day after her twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Mr. Tharoor.
“It was an unfortunate combination of media stress, tensions and a wrong mix of different medication. Her death was peaceful, she passed in her sleep. Please let her soul rest, I think there has been enough attention drawn towards her life,” Mr. Menon said.
The Sub Divisional Magistrate probing the case yesterday directed police to investigate murder or suicide angles in Ms. Sunanda’s death after the autopsy pin-pointed “poisoning” as the reason for her demise.
SDM Alok Sharma has given this directive to the police after considering the autopsy report which mentioned over a dozen injury marks on both her hands as well as a minor bruise on her left cheek which could be due to use of “blunt force”.
However, the report ruled out death due to these injuries.
The SDM, who had recorded the statement of Ms. Sunanda’s brother, son, Mr. Tharoor and his staff, said that no family member suspected any foul play in the death.
