THE CASE OF THE RECKLESS ROMEO - PART 2

In Part 1 of this story, I had dealt at length with the courtship and marriage of Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor, which ended in her death under mysterious circumstances. Let us now delve deeper...

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has levelled damaging charges against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. He said, 'Tharoor is now a material witness. If he tells the truth he will not be made an accused, otherwise he will become an accused. I would urge him to tell the whole truth. The whole truth is that she was murdered by being administered poison. The room was prepared for the murder, Tharoor knows about it and tampered with evidence. Sunanda Pushkar had said she would expose the IPL deals. Tharoor is protecting somebody who actually was the person who would have lost a lot if Sunanda would have addressed a press conference.'

Which brings us to Sunanda and Shashi’s IPL connect, which dates back to their courtship days.

Shashi Tharoor was the public face of Cochin’s bid to win one of two IPL franchises created for the 2011 season. He described himself as a “mentor” in Cochin’s bid, in his role as a member of parliament from nearby Thiruvananthapuram. Against expectations, a consortium called Rendezvous Sports World Pvt Ltd won the auction with the highest bid, to secure the IPL franchise to promote Kochi Tuskers-Kerala in what is unquestionably one of the world’s most lucrative sporting tournaments.

However, the success turned sour when it was disclosed that Tharoor’s girlfriend, Sunanda Pushkar, was a member of the consortium. The diplomat-turned-politician was accused of benefiting personally from the deal and of failing to declare an interest.

The issue came out into the open  when the IPL Kochi team franchisee was issued an ultimatum by BCCI to clarify over the alleged 25 per cent stake sale of the team to "unknown buyers". The minister's name was dragged in when the then Chairman and Commissioner of the Indian Premium League, Lalit Modi revealed the names of some of the owners of the consortium that bought the franchisee (including Sunanda Pushkar). He also alleged that Tharoor had asked him to not to ask who the shareholders were.

Shashi Tharoor retaliated with a press statement which read, "A consortium led by Rendezvous was set up to bid for an IPL team. They approached me for help and guidance. I steered them towards Kerala. Rendezvous includes a number of people, including many I have never met, and Sunanda Pushkar, whom I know well. My role in mentoring the consortium included several conversations with Mr Lalit Modi, who guided us through the process and presented himself as a trusted friend." Besides trying to clear off his name from the controversy, the Congress minister alleged that "Lalit Modi and others had pressurised the consortium members to abandon their bid in favour of another city in a different state."

Accusing Lalit Modi of waging a campaign to “besmirch” the Cochin bid, Tharoor said : “I have neither invested nor received even a rupee for my mentorship of the team. Whatever my personal relationships with any of the consortium members, I do not intend to benefit in any way financially from my association with the team now or at a later stage.” He complained about reports relating to his girlfriend : “Our media cannot accept an attractive woman as a serious business professional. She has worked in brand management and her stake in the consortium had been given to her as sweat equity.”

The controversy cost Tharoor his job as a junior minister in the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh. On September 19, 2011, the franchise of Kochi Tuskers-Kerala was terminated by the BCCI due to a breach in their contract terms, because they failed to provide a bank guarantee to cover their annual fee. According to IPL sources, substantial funding for Kochi Tuskers had been put in anonymously by Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra using Tharoor as the conduit. When the franchise was terminated, Vadra is believed to have asked Tharoor for his money back and Tharoor is reported to have pleaded helplessness in the matter. This had led to considerable unpleasantness between the two.

Days before her death, Sunanda Pushkar had used the Twitter route to make known to the world her apprehensions about her husband’s developing closeness to Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.

In a report published in The Economic Times, Pushkar was quoted as confirming that she had sent out the tweets. One of the tweets read: “Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets. I cannot tolerate this (the closeness of Mehr Tarar and Shashi Tharoor??). This is a Pakistani woman who is an ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) agent, and she is stalking my husband. And you know how men are. He is flattered by the attention. I took upon myself the crimes of this man during IPL (Indian Premier League). I will not allow this to be done to me. I just can’t tolerate this. I have nothing more to say.”

The indication is that during the Kochi Tuskers misadventure, Shashi Tharoor had indulged in  misdemeanours, which she had covered up. After having stood up to him in those times, she was not prepared to accept the Reckless Romeo's philandering ways with the Pakistani journalist.

Sunanda had called anchor Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today hours before her death and invited him over for a chat about the "other side of IPL". Similarly, she had also reached out to a senior Opposition politician and fixed up a meeting for the following week to tell him all about the IPL. She had also called up journalists Burkha Dutt and Nalini Singh. But none of these meetings happened because Sunanda died within hours of making these calls.

There are no eyewitnesses to her last living moments. So naturally, police investigations have to be based on circumstantial evidences and medical reports.The manner in which the initial investigations were done give an impression that someone with high connections wanted to close the case fast. The rules framed by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi were flouted while constituting the autopsy panel. Instead of having three experts from three different institutions to do the post mortem, all the three members of the autopsy panel headed by Sudhir Kumar Gupta, professor and head of department forensic medicine -- Adarsh Kumar, assistant professor, and Shashank Pooniya, senior resident-- were from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The police were comfortable with the conclusion given out that Sunanda’s death could be suicide or accidental due to drug overdose.

But then skeletons started tumbling out. First there was the volte face by the autopsy panel head, Dr Sudhir Kumar Gupta, who alleged pressure from “higher ups”.

Thereafter, questions started being asked. And with the change of guard at the Centre, the pressure on the investigators has eased. There is now enough circumstantial evidence to negate the possibility that Pushkar’s death was due to suicide or even a drug overdose. And with the police registering “murder” as the cause of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor’s death in the FIR filed rather belatedly on January 6, 2015, the line of inquiry is getting clearer.

The questions that are being asked are these :

·        What was Sunanda Pushkar intent upon confiding to several journalists and a senior politician hours before her death?

·        Was she done away because someone feared the consequences of her clearing her conscience?

·        Were her mobile calls being monitored? And, if so, by whom?

·        After ostensibly reaching a happy compromise in their personal relationship, why did husband Shashi Tharoor keep away from his wife till he came back to discover her dead body? Was he genuinely busy or was he keeping away on someone’s instructions?

·        With Sunanda’s personal doctors in Kerala denying that she was on any form of medication, were the strips of Alprax found in her room red herrings to veer the police and forensic experts to suicide or drug overdose?

·        How could the investigators have overlooked dead give-aways like tell-tale urine stains on bed linen and room carpet and a broken glass on the hotel table?

·        Current forensic evidence point to the fact that Sunanda was pinned down to her bed by atleast two burly men, while a third injected a poison into her. According to one of the doctors who did the autopsy, the prick marks on her hands are many, indicating that the murderer was inexpertly trying to locate a vein before plunging the syringe.

·        Could Sunanda’s murder be related to the IPL or to links in Dubai (where both she and Tharoor lived for a while), and the underworld there which controls illegal betting and match fixing in cricket?

·        Did she knew too much about the murky side of the IPL and threatened to expose those involved?

The questions are many. The answers, at the moment are few. But truth will come out one day. And the truth could be embarrassingly uncomfortable for many.

For another perspective of this murder mystery, you may also read :

http://t.co/TSxIiSw2Ka

THE CASE OF THE RECKLESS ROMEO

Perry Mason novels were a childhood favourite. The intriguing cases, the beautiful defendants, the painstaking investigations, and finally the courtroom drama in which Mason dramatically turns the tables on the prosecution to secure the release of his client... They have all the ingredients of a pot-boiler. No wonder many a Perry Mason novel by his creator Erle Stanley Gardner ended up as absorbing TV plays. Many thrillers by other authors, featuring Perry Mason as the central character, also made it to the screens. One such story was The Case of the Reckless Romeo, 

telecast in the US in 1992.

The story bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Sunanda Pushkar case, which I am about to narrate. But then, the title could fit her husband Shashi Tharoor like a glove. And so I have used it here. 

Let us take a quick peek.

He : Born in 1956. Handsome. Suave. Flamboyant. Educated. A man of letters, who began writing with a regular column on Foreign Affairs in THE ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA. Rich. A junior minister in the Congress-led UPA government after a successful career in India’s foreign service. Twice married and twice divorced, with a roving eye for beauty. Snotty. Condescending and snobbish to the extent of publicly proclaiming that flying in the Economy section was “cattle class”...  

She : Born in 1962. Glamorous. Glitzy. Rich. Ambitious. A social climber using her undeniable charm to penetrate elitist fortresses. Twice married and twice divorced. All ready for a third engagement with matrimony, provided the terms were right...

When they met, they felt they were made for each other. A dream, year-long courtship, almost entirely before media flashlights, ended in their marriage in 2010. Sunanda Pushkar became Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor.

Theirs was a dream alliance.

Man and Wife were inseparable. Like Mary's little lamb, wherever Sunanda went, Shashi went. He hardly ever left her alone. They could often be spotted walking hand in hand or Sunanda possessively caressing Shashi’s hair or unabashedly pecking him on the cheek. His friends admired these juvenile demonstrations. And his critics chided him by saying Shashi Tharoor ought to have been made the minister of ‘love affairs’.

The couple’s idyllic world, however, turned sour and on January 17, 2014, Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite in the Leela Palace Hotel in Delhi under mysterious circumstances. 

A few months earlier, reports had surfaced that the Shashi-Sunanda marriage was heading towards disaster after Mehr Tarar, a beautiful Pakistani journalist, whom Sunanda termed an ISI agent, entered Tharoor’s life. Domestic helps and close friends talked about frequent verbal and sometimes physical spats between Shashi and Sunanada on Mehr Tarar's account. In fact, even though the couple had flown in together to Delhi a day before her death, they had bitterly fought over Tarar on the flight (Sunanda had even locked herself into the flight toilet, much to the amusement and chagrin of fellow travellers) and later in the airport. As a result they had chosen not to go to their plush Lodhi Estate home. They had instead come to Leela Palace separately and checked into separate rooms. After hours of confabulations, which involved some common friends, the couple finally put out a joint statement to scotch rumours that their marriage was on the rocks. They claimed that all differences had been resolved and they were again “happily married”. Thereafter, they shifted jointly to Suite number 345.

During the rest of their stay, Shashi Tharoor kept himself out of her hair by “busying” himself with party affairs, while Sunanda was left pretty much to herself with a domestic help, Narayan Singh, at hand to attend to personal needs.

On the fateful day, Tharoor returned at around 8 PM from an AICC meeting, only to find his wife lying dead in their hotel room. More than an hour later, he informed the Delhi police about his wife’s death. The police recovered the body from the hotel and sent it for autopsy. According to initial reports, Sunanda was suspected to have committed suicide. Later reports stated that the cause of death was “unnatural”. Dr Adarsh Kumar, who was part of the AIIMS team that conducted the post mortem, told the media that Sunanda’s arms had injury marks that appeared to have been caused by a “blunt instrument. Sources added that there was a bite mark on the left hand and several blue coloured contusions on her right hand, which could not have been self-inflicted. Yet the doctors, in all their wisdom, said these injuries may or may not be the cause of death. The autopsy report indicated that she died of drug overdose, most likely a combination of sedatives, other strong medicines and probably alcohol. Strips of Alprax, an anti-depressant, was found in her purse as well as in the room. This led the investigators to suspect that a suicidal overdose of this could have led to her death.

In a statement to investigators, Shashi Tharoor said : "Our married life was very happy and some misunderstanding which was there was cleared and she was happy about it." He also revealed that his wife was "a very happy personality" but was very ill after two surgeries. She was dependent on Alprax tablets to sleep, he said. Days before her death, Pushkar had been admitted to a hospital in Kerala for suspected lupus. Tharoor said she was discharged on January 14,  2014, after which they came to Delhi. In his statement to the magistrate, Tharoor claimed he had gone to Jaipur that day, and had come back to the hotel at 8 PM.  

"I decided to wake up Sunanda at 8.30 PM. I entered the bedroom of the suite asking 'darling how are you feeling,' there was no reply. I placed my hand on her forehead to check for fever and found it very cold. Her hands were stiff. I immediately called the doctors and the hotel management. But it was already too late."

Doctors at Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences in Trivandrum, who had examined her a few days earlier however claimed that Sunanda did not have any serious health problems, thereby raising serious doubts about the truthfulness of Tharoor’s claims. 

On 1 July 2014, the controversy over her death deepened when AIIMS doctor Sudhir Gupta, who headed the team that conducted the post mortem on Sunanda’s body claimed that he was pressured "by top officials" to submit a false report in the case to the effect that Sunanda died a "natural death". He claimed that he was being targeted because he did not bow to the pressure and gave a report stating that Sunanda's death was caused by drug poisoning that could be either suicidal or homicidal. Dr Gupta claimed he was prevented from telling the truth in his report due to Shashi Tharoor and Ghulam Nabi Azad's influence. In order to prove that the autopsy report was influenced, Dr Gupta has also submitted details of emails exchanged between the AIIMS director and Tharoor, thereby implying that the “top official” he had referred to was the Director himself.

Shashi Tharoor, however, maintained that he has, since the beginning, not created any obstacle in the investigation process. He said that he was cooperating fully with the police fulfilling all the formalities that are required by the investigation authorities.

On October 10, 2014 the medical team probing Sunanda’s death concluded that she had died of poisoning. On November 10, the hotel room, where she was found dead and which had been locked under the seal of the Delhi Police, was re-examined by police and forensic experts. Police officials claimed that during this examination, they had stumbled upon fluid marks on the bed and the carpet and a broken glass in suite number 345 of Leela Palace hotel. How such tell-tale evidences could have been ignored in the first place is not clear and would definitely weaken the police case when it comes before a court for trial.

Forensic experts inform that the stains on the bed linen and carpet had been caused by urine. These coupled with the injuries on Sunanda’s body and some tell-tale prick-marks on her hands indicate a violent struggle and forced injection of a poison. The viscera report that was filed recently also indicated the presence of a rare poison forcing the forensic authorities to send viscera samples to Scotland Yard for a detailed analysis to identify the specific poison.

On January 6, 2015 Delhi Police reported that Sunanda was murdered and filed an FIR in the regard. 

Less than a week later, maverick politician and senior BJP leader Subramanium Swamy claimed that she had been administered a Russian poison which was unknown to Indian forensic experts. He stated that Sunanda's husband Tharoor was a part of the murder conspiracy. Adding to the string of accusations against Tharoor, Swamy challenged him to reveal the identity of the 'killers' to the police.The BJP leader also accused Tharoor of trying to cover up his wife's murder as a natural death. Giving a totally new twist to the sordid story, Swamy claimed that Sunanda had been put to death as she had wanted to tell the truth about some dubious dealings in the IPL. "Priyanka Gandhi’s husband, Robert Vadra's name would also have surfaced," he said.

Suddenly the case assumed new dimensions. What was once believed to be a straight forward suicide by the wife of a reckless Romeo has become a cause célèbre with political and financial ramifications. Which leads us to the questions : What was Sunanda’s Pushkar’s connection with IPL cricket? What was the damaging information she could have made public?  Who wanted to suppress the information so desperately as to warrant silencing her on a permanent basis? And in what way could Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law be linked to the whole sordid drama?

I shall go into these issues in my next post.