Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda found dead in Delhi hotel

New Delhi, Jan 17: Union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar has been found dead in Hotel Leela Palace in Delhi on Friday night.

Sources say that the death happened when Tharoor was at the AICC meeting today. The exact cause of death is not known. However, police suspect it is a case of suicide. Police said the body was found on the bed. There was no sign of struggle or poisoning, said the police. However, they declined to reveal more details.

According to Tharoor's private secretary, Sunanda arrived at the hotel on Thursday with Shashi, who returned to his residence on Friday. The house-keeping staff, worried after Sunanda didn't reply to their calls, broke open the door on Friday evening.

The marriage of the 52-year-old Sunanda and Tharoor was allegedly going south and Sunanda had alleged on Twitter that a Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar was having an affair with Shashi Tharoor. On Wednesday evening, a number of tweets, exposing Tharoor's affair with Tarar, had appeared on Tharoor's Twitter page. Subsequently a Twitter spat had broke out between Sunanda and Mehr.

Later Sunanda revealed that she had posted those tweets from Tharoor's account to 'expose the affair'. Sunanda, in an interview given to a channel, had accused Tharoor of betraying her and had hinted at filing for divorce. However, on Thursday the couple issued a joint statement that they were 'happily married'. Tharoor, on his Facebook page, had requested the media for privacy and had said his wife was 'unwell'.

The couple got married in August 2010. A Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, it was Tharoor's third marriage and Sunanda Pushakar's second. She has a 21-year-old son, Shiv Menon, from her previous marriage. He is currently in UAE.

More details are awaited.

Oneindia News