Awaiting police report on Sunanda death, says Tharoor

Thiruvananthapuram: Breaking his silence, former Union Minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said he has always been cooperating with the police and is awaiting their report on the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

His remarks came days after a new report by the three-member panel of doctors, who had conducted the autopsy on his wife Sunanda Pushkar, maintained that she died of poisoning.

“I have been cooperating with police from the first day itself. I have sought a report in the beginning itself and I am awaiting it. I have not heard anything from the police yet,” Tharoor, who is visiting his grandmother here said.

He maintained that he has nothing to hide and was himself awaiting information from the police.

“I have been saying this from day one. It is the same now also,” he said.

Congress had on Friday advocated caution on the Sunanda death case and accused the BJP of doing “politics” over the issue, which it said was “entirely a legal process“.

“Congress’ stand is clear. When a legal process is taking place, you do not comment on every document, every comma and full stop. Every week a new document may come up. When that legal process reaches a conclusion or even a semi conclusion, then we will see,” party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had said yesterday.

Asked about Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu favouring a fresh probe into the case, saying it “requires an inquiry”, Singhvi said, “BJP is trying to get politics into an issue, which is entirely a legal process.”

Sunanda was found dead in a 5—star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, after her Twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with her husband.

Delhi Police said that the fresh report submitted by AIIMS doctors on the reasons for Sunanda’s death was “inconclusive” and it may now go for advanced forensic tests.