Sunanda Pushkar, wife of former diplomat and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor died under mysterious circumstances in a five-star hotel room a year ago. A year later the Delhi Police have reasons to believe that Pushkar did not commit suicide as was earlier assumed but that she was murdered. Speculations are rife that the lady was supposed to give a press conference and to come clean on the IPL issue the morning after. Pushkar had drawn a lot of flak on the IPL Kochi issue which her close confidantes were told was done to protect Tharoor and others in high places. Police suspect that her murder might have something to do with the press conference she was mean to address. Now the Delhi Police have served a notice to Shashi Tharoor asking him to join the investigation into the mysterious death of his wife. In other words this means that Tharoor will be questioned under section 160 CrPC. In ordinary circumstances, when a married women dies a mysterious death the husband is the natural suspect and would have been arrested for questioning immediately. But Shashi Tharoor is not an ordinary person. The Congress-led UPA Government was in power when the incident happened and Tharoor is a senior Congress leader. Everything was done to hush up the case and to blame the death on unconvincing reasons such as Lupus or drinking coconut water on an empty stomach etc. Now that a different dispensation is ruling Delhi, the Police seem to be pursuing the case vigorously. The question is why does the Police play politics with what clearly is a pre-meditated murder from all available evidences? When will the Police have a free hand to follow through a case, and investigate it with the seriousness it deserves without being put under any kind of pressure? Why is it that the Delhi Police only now adds an additional charge under Section 328, which pertains to causing hurt by means of poison?
Shashi Tharoor has stayed away from the media and refuses to get drawn into television studio debates. He claims that Delhi Police had threatened his domestic help to name him as the killer of his wife. Now that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe the case we hope the truth will be out sooner than later. Sunanda Pushkar loved life too much to kill herself, yet the suicide theory was floated by none other than her cocktail circuit friends. The lady did not deserve to die the way she did. It is important that we find out the truth behind her death so that justice is not buried along with her memory.