Sunanda case: murder, suicide angles to be probed

In this January 201, 2014 photo, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and his son Shiv Menon carry the urn containing the ashes of his wife Sunanda Pushkar during a prayer meeting at his residence in New Delhi.

A sub-divisional magistrate on Tuesday directed the Delhi Police to investigate if the “unnatural” death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor, was a case of suicide or homicide.

The directive to came on a day the Congress, in a gesture of confidence in Mr. Tharoor, appointed him a spokesperson.

SDM Alok Sharma, who conducted an inquest, submitted his report to the Delhi Police.

The SDM went through the autopsy report prepared by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which mentioned over a dozen injury marks on both hands as well as a minor bruise on the left cheek.

The report mentioned that the marks could have been caused by “blunt force” but they were not fatal in nature.

Doctors at AIIMS who conducted the autopsy had said that her death was “sudden and unnatural” and it was caused by “drug overdose.”

To look into messages

Police sources said they would begin investigations by scanning the Blackberry message exchanges between Mr. Tharoor and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. Sunanda was reportedly upset at the exchanges.

Mr. Sharma said that under Section 176 of the CrPC, his job was to determine cause of death, which has been established as poisoning.