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National / Cover Stories

MAGAZINE | JAN 19, 2015

Post-m ortem Sunandas body being loaded on to the ambulance

SUNANDA DEATH

Man In The Shadow

Read murder for sudden, unnatural death. The Sunanda Pushkar saga is not buried yet.
SABA NAQVI

The mirror has cracked from side to side for Shashi Tharoor, that suave writer, diplomat, politician known for flicking back his hair and talking in a polished accent. He has
walked, talked and tweeted his way out of many scandals and even a few scams in the past. But the strange case of the death of his third wife Sunanda Pushkar exactly a
year ago seems set to stalk him. The dead do tell some tales, it seems. Now the police is acting on an autopsy report that suggests possible traces of a lethal poison called
Polonium-210 in her body. After a great deal of confusion, we now know a year after the death that its not sparkling cyanide or a fit of rage that killed her but perhaps a
poison weve heard of only in high-profile international murders. The case has certainly moved into the zone of mysteries that otherwise inhabit the world of fiction. It is Agatha
Christieland out there in the case that swirls around Tharoor: beautiful women, dead beautiful woman, body in a lush hotel, a famous husband (him), suggestions of scandal
and personal indiscretions, untraceable poison.

They were a couple

beautifully turned
out, from cocktail
party to book launch,
tweeting bits of a life
they tried to...

This correspondent had exactly two encounters with the once-famous coupleShashi and Sunandawho walked hand in hand smiling and
being photographed. It was after the famous marriage in 2010, when Page 3 was being decorated with photographs of the two. They walked in
like a teenage couple in love to a winter lunch hosted by then Union minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise. There were many notables
present that day on the Lutyens bungalow lawns but all eyes were on the lady, who sported a cowgirl look, with knee-high boots and a check
shirt. She was charming, warm, gushing, pulling her husbands arm, jaan come here, jaan lets go there. Constantly searching out one
another, they were definitely a novelty in the world of staid middle-class couples, let alone politicians who would never dream of making a
public display of spousal affection.

Meeting number two took place at the residence of the French ambassador in Delhi in 2012, where this correspondent was on the panel to
discuss Tharoors latest book, Pax Indica. Tharoor was eloquent as usual. Sunanda sat in the front row, furiously tweeting her husbands
words, minute by minute. At the cocktail afterwards, she was quite delighted with his performance. Again, charming, gushing, very anxious to make an impression, exchange
numbers with the guests who were politely trying to not just stare at her.

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Hyderabad ire Protest against Tharoor, Lalit Modi over IPL

Thats how the couple lived for the four highly publicised years of their marriage: beautifully turned out, from cocktail party to book launch, tweeting away nuggets of a life they
tried to variously project as glamorous, meaningful, beautiful, happening and surrounded by the halo of true love. Indeed, Shashi would in his book dedication describe
Sunanda as the greatest love of his life. The Sunanda-Shashi story truly is a fit case for the use of clicheslife would be stranger than fiction, cocktail season would turn into
a morbid cocktail and what have you. Given the kind of hysterics that preceded Sunandas death in a seven-star hotel, one can indeed say that it was a long hangover, the
crash after the party has pooped, a mercurial change that happens when people seek great highs after which they hit the lows.
That day too, on January 17, 2014, this correspondent had sighted Shashi Tharoor at the AICC session in Delhis Talkatora Stadium. He was
smiling, nodding at a few journalists, and seen walking over to greet Sonia Gandhi. He did not look like a man who was in the midst of high
drama on the personal front (if there is indeed any such reliable look) or knew that his wife would be dead soon. But if this was actually a
Christie murder mystery, one could say he was setting up the greatest alibi of all: being seen by hundreds of people at a public event in Delhi
even as someone was possibly injecting Polonium-210 into his wife. According to Tharoors version of events, he would return to the hotel after
the AICC meet and find Sunanda dead.
This is how the sequence of events leading up to the fateful day goes: Tharoor had struck up a friendship with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.
Sunanda suspected him of having an affair and confided to friends and suggested in interviews that she would expose him and blow the lid.
They boarded a flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi on January 15 and fought all the way through in the aircraft and at Delhi airport
(Tharoor was then minister of state in the HRD ministry). Then I&B minister Manish Tewari was also a witness to the mid-air fracas as were
other passengers.

...Variously project
as glamorous,
meaningful,
beautiful, happening
and surrounded by
the halo of true love.

Full circle Tw eeted pic on travelling cattle class, doing his bit for Sw achh Bharat and w ith Sonia Gandhi at an iftaar party

In Delhi, a distraught and hysterical Sunanda refused to go home and checked into the Leela hotel. Tharoor has also admitted to investigators that there were a few scuffles
between him and his wife. They were apparently fighting non-stop for three days. Tharoor followed her into the hotel the next day and they again proceeded to fight through
the night apparently. In the morning, he left for the AICC session; she went to sleep. At some point, she died or was killed. This was the sad end to the woman Narendra
Modi had described as the 50 crore girlfriend. Tharoor had then responded that Sunanda was priceless. It was a very smart response then.

At the AICC session

in Delhi that day,
Tharoor didnt look
like he was in the
midst of high drama
or his wife would die
soon.

What was not so smart in hindsight is the pressure Tharoor reportedly sought to bring on the forensic laboratory at aiims. This is where Crime
Scene Investigation meets Agatha Christie. According to the head of the forensic unit Sudhir Gupta (see interview), political pressure was
brought on him to declare the death as a natural one after he had indicated unnatural and sudden death in his first report. Gupta was not
willing to go along, hence was sidelined and Sunanda speedily cremated. Before that, however, the viscera (body tissue) was kept in
preservative and detailed photographs taken of the injuries on her body that included bite marks and needle punctures. Now, Gupta has been
rehabilitated and the police is acting on the presumption that Sunanda was poisoned.
What now of Shashi Tharoor? A small group around him speaks of political vendetta by the BJP. Perhaps. But the reality is that the most
revealing tales about the MP now come from his own Congress party. Always seen as an outsider who got grafted in at the top level,
salacious tales about him are known to his party colleagues. To add to the famous Twitter row between Sunanda and Mehr Tarar the day

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before the formers death, sources say more than one woman has fought and gotten hysterical over Tharoor. There is a tale involving a Keralabased actress he was involved with before he moved on to Sunanda. Apparently, she was so fiercely jealous that she tried to stop an attractive woman MP from Mumbai
from going to his room for a professional purpose. The MP would later apparently complain to president Sonia Gandhi. Then, during his days as a UN diplomat, Tharoor had
got involved with the wife of an Indian ambassador that culminated in the couple getting a divorce. There is no moral judgement to be made on Tharoors life, and many
brilliant men have a great appetite for women. But all this assumes relevance because his late third wife was apparently hysterical because of this.
In Kerala, the joke is that political opponents are more afraid of Tharoors ability to charm women than any other accomplishment of his. One
rival party that was putting up a candidate against him in Thiruvananthapuram apparently denied a ticket to a beautiful lady candidate because
they feared that instead of fighting Tharoor she would fall for him! The ticket went to a relatively dull male candidate who Tharoor defeated by a
narrow lead.

Sources in the
Congress say more
than one woman has
fought and gotten
hysterical over
Shashi Tharoor.

Tharoors m any loves & lives: Mehr Tarar, Sunanda, Tilottama Mukherjee and Christa Giles

Ever since he became one of the 44 Congress candidates to survive the Modi onslaught in the 2014 general election, Tharoor has been trying to flirt not with women but with
the BJP. He has said nice things about Narendra Modi in articles and on Twitter and showed solidarity with his Swachh Bharat mission. He caught the broom, it is now being
said, not to clean India but to soften the BJP regime and ensure that any scandal remained firmly swept under the carpet. The BJP, however, does not seem to be either
wooed or flattered and will possibly view Tharoor as damaged goods. He will certainly face further investigation at the very least for trying to tamper with evidence.

Tharoor has put out

nearly 25,000 tweets
since 2009...

Shashi Tharoor, the talented writer, has got lost in all the scandals, the scams. One of the conspiracy theories doing the rounds in Delhi
actually links the IPL scam to the death of his wife. The version, now also appearing in some Hindi dailies, goes something like this. Sunanda
Pushkar was from Dubai where she met Tharoor. The couple, who once owned an IPL team (that was later removed from the league), also had
other contacts in Dubai. Sunanda had started to act unstable and talk in interviews about revealing some great secrets. This worried others
too, besides being very inconvenient for Tharoor. Her death therefore was a professional hit by unknown men who checked into the same hotel
where she was staying.

Tharoor, meanwhile, is not a public personality who evokes sympathy. He is seen as too elitist, too clever by half. His remarks, like the one about flying cattle class,
endeared him to no one except the thin crust of people who revel in their sense of privilege, and certainly inappropriate for a politician presuming to represent the toiling
masses of India. As a minister, he once tried to stay in a five-star hotel and get the government to pick up his tab (after it became another scandal he found himself a house).
He is perceived as being snooty and way too smooth.
On the flip side, hes a talented writer, very courteous in his speech, and one of the current members of the Congress who has both written
and spoken most elegantly about the Nehruvian legacy. Its actually a little startling to realise that between writing 14 books and doing well at
both fiction and non-fiction, lurching from cocktail to book event, he also found the time to put out nearly 25,000 tweets (since he joined Twitter
in 2009 he has one of the highest number of followers for an Indian at 2.8 million). At the time of writing on January 8, he had not tweeted for
three days.

...And has highest

no. of followers for
an Indian: 2.8 mn.

For tweeting is as significant a reality in the life of Shashi Tharoor, 58, as all his many other engagements. Theres something so unreal about
the life of Shashi Tharoor once he crosses 50. He began with a keen talent and intelligence that saw him make his way to the top of the UN bureaucracy. He was then
audacious enough to enter mass politics in India and succeed. He wrote books that sold well and the latestIndia Shastrais about to fly of the shelves. Its a 473-page
tome, where hes already analysed the Modi regime, and then moved on to an analysis of ideas that govern India, colonialism and so on. This book has been dedicated to his
grandmother and mother. The greatest love of his life is no more.
***

A Question Of Answers: Suicide, Murder, Accident Or A Frame-Up?

Since May 2014, the investigating officer on the case, Atul Sood, has been transferred; ACP Surinder Sharma, who was supervising the investigation, retired in
September, and the DCP concerned was shifted to the traffic department
Delhi police is yet to examine or record the statement of BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy by a magistrate. Swamy claims to have proof that Sunanda Pushkar
was killed but says the needle of suspicion goes beyond Tharoor.
Delhi Police Commissioner told the media that a case for murder was registered because the final report from AIIMS held that the death was homicidal in nature.
The forensic science department head Dr Sudhir Gupta denies this and told the media that the report says that death was by poisoning and that it was for the police to
find out if the death was suicidal, homicidal or accidental.
The Police holds that it is investigating whether the poison was administered orally or was injected. (The only way it can be established is for someone to come
forward and testify how it was administered.)
Police claims that the medical report mentions that the deceased suffered from no prior disease and had no cardiac problem, hypertension or tuberculosis. This is
contested by a member of the forensic team, who confirms that she did suffer from Lupus, an autoimmune disease.
While Shashi Tharoor spoke to the Delhi Police Commissioner on November 9, 2014, and followed it up with a letter on November 12 to complain that his domestic
help, Narayan Singh, was beaten up by the police and pressured into saying that he and Tharoor had killed Pushkar, the police commissioner announced to the media
in January that he had spoken to his officers and that they had told him the charge was baseless.

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AIIMS had submitted a revised report in September but Delhi police was not satisfied; it asked AIIMS to answer some more questions. Sources in AIIMS claim all the
reports submitted by them on the death so far, four according to one estimate and more according to others, have reiterated by and large the same findings.
The final medical report submitted by AIIMS on December 29 is believed to have recorded that traces of acetaminophen, caffeine, cotinine and ethyl alcohol were
found in the viscera but no trace of Alprax was found although two strips of the anti-depressant were found by the bedside.
***

The Rise And Slide Of Shashi Tharoor

1956 Born in London to Lily and Chandran Tharoor, an ad executive for The Statesman, Calcutta
1975 At St Stephens College in Delhi, where he did his BA in History, edits the magazine Kooler Talk
1976 The debater and quizzer wins college elections with the slogan Shashi Tharoor, jeetega zaroor
1978 The youngest to complete a PhD in diplomacy from Tufts University, Massachusetts, begins UN career
1989 Becomes senior officer at UN; publishes his take on the Mahabharata, The Great Indian Novel
1997 Becomes executive assistant to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan
2006 Lobbied hard with a reluctant UPA government to back him as Indias candidate for the top UN post
2007 Becomes president of Afras Ventures, a Dubai firm promoting foreign investment
2007 Marries UN colleague Christa Giles after split with Tilottama Mukherjee, with whom he has twins Kanishk and Ishaan
2009 Enters Indian politics, joins Congress and is elected to 15th Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram
2009 Meets Sunanda Pushkar at a soiree in Dubai hosted by billionaire businessman of Kerala origin, Sunny Varkey
2009 Stays in a star hotel as minister during austerity drive, saying Kerala House didnt have a gym or privacy; tweets pictures about travelling cattle class
2010 Allegedly leans in on external affairs ministry to buy three books authored by him for distribution in Indian missions
2010 Calls Saudi Arabia a valuable interlocutor between India and Pakistan during PMs visit to Jeddah
2010 Lalit Modi discloses names of some of the owners of the Cochin IPL franchise, including Sunanda Pushkars
2010 Sends SMS to Karan Thapar: Ive seen your grilling of Farooq, putting words in his mouth and Ive just realised what a s**t you are
2010 Uproar in Parliament over IPL leads to Tharoors resignation as minister of state for external affairs
2010 Divorces Christa Giles, marries Sunanda Pushkar, backs P.J. Thomass appointment as CVC
2011 Tweets Amul babies are fit, strong, focused on future after Kerala CM calls Rahul Gandhi an Amul baby
2011 CAG says Tharoor received $30,000 in Dubai account for Commonwealth Games services
2012 After Modi calls Sunanda a Rs 50 crore girlfriend, Tharoor responds: Wife Priceless
2014 Subramanian Swamy alleges Tharoor misused his office to get Pushkars son out of a UAE jail
2014 Sunanda Pushkar in a Twitter blowout with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, who she alleges is having an affair with Tharoor
2014 Pushkar and Tharoor issue a joint statement, but she is found dead the following evening after a series of conversations with TV journalists through the night
2014 Draws Congress fire for online article How Narendra Modi may have evolved into Modi 2.0
2014 Modi nominates Tharoor as one of his ambassadors for Swachh Bharat campaign; Congress sacks him as spokesperson
By Saba Naqvi with Minu Ittyipe
Click here to see the article in its standard web format

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