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I am stunned to hear of murder case: Tharoor

by IBNS 06 Jan 2015, 12:02 am

London/Islamabad, Jan 6 (IBNS): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said he was stunned to hear that the Delhi Police have filed a case of murder in connection to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar last year.

Tharoor said he will fully cooperate with the police.

"I am stunned to hear that the Delhi Police have filed a case of murder against unknown persons in the demise of my late wife Sunanda. Needless to say I am anxious to see this case is investigated thoroughly and continue to assure the Police of my full co-operation," Tharoor said in a statement.

"Although we never thought of any foul play in the death of my wife, we all want that a comprehensive investigation be conducted and that the unvarnished truth should come out," he said.

"In the meantime I join all members of Sunanda's family in asking for full information about the basis on which the Police have come to this conclusion. We have not been provided with copies of the postmortem report and other reports of the inquiry like the CFSL report till date. We repeat our request for a copy of these reports to be provided to us immediately," Tharoor said.

Delhi Police has filed a murder case in the mysterious death of  Sunanda Pushkar, a socialite and businesswoman  who died of suspected poisoning.

Police on Tuesday said the poising could have been by injection or administered orally and all necessary people would be questioned though the name of Shashi Tharoor was not spelt out by the cops.

"The death is not natural, it is due to poisoning  and we will do whatever required to take it to logical conclusion," said Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi. More samples can be sent to abroad to find out the nature of the poison which caused the death.

"It is not clear if she was injected forcibly. We are acting based on medical reports as received time to time.

Bassi said no name has been taken, however, in the case lodged under Section 302 of IPC. He said they are awaiting more inputs in the case.

Earlier there was a demand for a CBI probe in the mystery death  from different quarters.

The 52-year-old woman was found dead in a suite at the Leela Palace hotel in South Delhi on January 17, 2014.

The incident took place a day after her Twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with her husband, Shashi Tharoor, who was then a Union Minister.

The AIIMS medical board, who conducted the first autopsy in February, suspected drug poisoning.

Later, a report by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), which conducted the second report, said there were not enough drugs in her system to cause death.

CFSL had examined Sunanda’s viscera in March this year.

But police considered it as inconclusive and then sent the CFSL report to AIIMS for their second opinion.

According to media reports, a panel of AIIMS doctors submitted a fresh report to police on September 30 saying Sunanda Pushkar died of poisoning.

The fresh findings by the three-member panel of doctors were prepared on the basis of a report given by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).