The prosecutor in the Sunanda Pushkar case has made an explosive allegation against the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor claiming that the MP from Trivandrum had spent three nights in Dubai with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, referring to assertions made by Sunanda Pushkar’s journalist friend.
Quoting journalist Nalini Singh, who was reportedly a close confidant of Sunanda Pushkar, public prosecutor Atul Srivastava said that Sunanda Pushkar herself shared the explosive revelation that Tharoor had spent three nights with Tarar in Dubai. He read Nalini Singh’s statement that said, “I knew Sunanda for 3-4 years. For last one year she started sharing about her personal life. She shared her relationship problems with Tharoor and told me that Tharoor and Tarar spent three nights together.”
The statement by Singh also mentioned that she was contacted by a weeping Sunanda, a day before her death, saying that Tharoor and Tarar also shared romantic messages with each other. It is pertinent to note that a few days before Sunanda’s death, Sunanda had allegedly shared an affectionate conversation between Tharoor and Tarar on Twitter, sparking a widespread controversy over Tharoor’s alleged infidelity.
These tweets hit the national headline as Congress’ most eloquent and suave politician was smeared with the allegations of disloyalty and brought out in open his family dispute. Sunanda Pushkar was found dead under mysterious circumstances two days after these tweets surfaced on Twitter 17 January 2014.
Srivastava also cited the Tarun Tejpal judgment by the Supreme Court that observed, “Even mental torture can amount to cruelty”. However, Pushkar’s son Shiv Menon said that her mother was a strong lady and she cannot commit suicide. Prosecutor Srivastava also quoted Sunanda Pushkar’s brother Ashish who said his elder sister (Sunanda) was a brave lady who could have never committed suicide.
The Delhi Police, on the other hand, had exhorted a city court to prosecute Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for abetment to suicide or “in alternative” on murder charge in the case of unnatural death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
