Sunanda - The Unperfect Murder

Across the world, when a woman dies under suspicious circumstances, the first ones to be interviewed are her those closest to her. Usually, it’s the husband, boyfriend, wife, girlfriend or if one or both of them had affairs, then their secret lovers also become “persons of interest”. Do note, they are always described as “person of interest” and not as “suspect” unless they find some suspicion of foul play or incongruent behaviour that turns the person into a suspect. Sunanda Pushkar died on January 17, 2014. The autopsy confirms the date but I have not seen any report that confirms the exact time of death. This is a serious flaw in the autopsy. Estimating the exact time of death creates a lot of pointers to the chain of events that lead to the death. Shashi Tharoor (ST) should have been treated as the prime suspect but he swaggered his way off.

However, the autopsy of Sunanda conducted AIIMS records a few things. It was a sudden, unnatural death. There were 12 injury marks on her body. Use of blunt force to her body and deep bite marks near her hand. Nominal traces of the drug Alprazolam (a deep sleep inducer) and Excedrin (a migraine-reliever) were found. No drug over-dose was found. The then Delhi PC BS Bassi stated it was murder. The AIIMS autopsy panel-head Dr. Sudhir Gupta repeatedly claimed he was being pressurised to manipulate the report. By hook or crook, Sunanda’s death was finally “assumed” a suicide and buried. I don’t think anyone believed it was suicide and no medical report stated that. From day 1, it was suspected to be a murder by almost every Indian who took any interest in the case:

 

The autopsy had not declared Sunanda’s death to be suicide. The case went cold for a couple of years till Subramaniam Swamy filed a PIL in the SC which directed the Delhi Police to conduct a proper inquiry and prosecute the case. In May 2017, seeking sensationalism on launch, Arnab Goswami of Republic TV released a series of facts and evidences relating to the case which further annoyed ST. In court hearings, ST protested Swamy being involved in the case but didn’t get far. Let us briefly take a look at the chain of events leading to Sunanda’s murder and the aftermath. These are according to medical and police reports as reflected in the media and also recent witness testimonies on August 31, 2019.

# On January 16, 2014, a day before her death, Sunanda and Tharoor had a physical fight. This left her bruised. And the autopsy records she had “blunt force” trauma and “bite marks” on her arm:

# On January 16, Tharoor was constantly chatting with Mehr Tarar with whom he is suspected of having an affair. Tharoor is also reported to have previously spent a few days with Tarar in Dubai, either together or in the same hotel.

# After the fight on January 16, Tharoor came to Sunanda’s room, either past midnight or early hours of January 17 according to the witness who was in the room with Sunanda. Here’s an India Today report on it:

 

# So, at 2.30 am on January 17, Sunanda ordered some meal and had kept chatting with her friend till 5am. Whether she popped some pills before sleeping, we don’t know but as the autopsy say there was “no overdose” of any drugs. The friend who was with Sunanda left at 5 am on January 17. Therefore, we definitely know that Sunanda was alive at 5am that morning.

# In the morning of Jan.17, Tharoor left for an AICC meeting. It is not publicly known what time he left. And he didn’t return till after 8pm to the hotel. He returned and found Sunanda motionless and probably dead. He called the police.

# According to various reports, Sunanda had, on Jan.17 morning, called various reporters to make some explosive revelations about something – maybe IPL scam or Mehr Tarar. We don’t know. Among the journos she called were Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose and also veteran Nalini Singh. Here is what Nalini Singh has consistently maintained in print and on TV shows:

# Tharoor addresses Tarar as “my darlingest”. I am sure that’s the common language Congis use to address their paramours. This, despite Sunanda being constantly suspicious of an affair.

# On August 31, 2019 during the trial hearing, witnesses confirmed Tharoor and Sunanda had fought on January 16. That part of the fight was also about a young woman named “Katy”. This Katy turns out to be a biographer of Tharoor and by that reason would have frequent interactions with him.

# Those peddling the suicide theory – no report has confirmed suicide. Besides, even an excessive dose of sleeping pills or regular Arsenic poisoning are not known to have caused deaths. Timely medical help has saved many such victims:

# The man in the above case who regularly took an excessive dose of sleeping pills did not die. In addition, drugs like Alprazolam or Ambien are no more routinely available over the counter.

# In all of this, I would place the highest suspicion on the deceptive behaviour of ST before and after the murder of Sunanda. The Delhi Police did not bother to have a top psychological or behavioural analyst to profile ST’s behaviour. Let us attempt that, step by step.

Shashi Tharoor’s Deceptive Behaviour

# Late night Jan 16 or early morning on Jan 17, Tharoor came into Sunanda’s room and was apologetic as stated by the friend who was with Sunanda. I have mentioned this in the 2^nd pic of this post. The friend also confirms she left at 5am and, therefore, Sunanda wasn’t dead then.

# What happened on the morning of Jan.17? ST leaves for the AICC meet. Did he go into Sunanda’s room to check on her as she was physically assaulted? Did he go in to say bye before he left for the AICC meeting? There isn’t any record stating he met her in the morning.

# Throughout the day, ST was out at the AICC meeting and probably with some other business. Did he ever call his wife at the hotel or her mobile to check if she was okay? There is no public record of any such call. Wouldn’t a reasonable man care for his wife (even if he had an affair with another) enough to at least call and check on her? Nothing!

# It seems Sunanda had called up a few journos to give them an explosive story but the meetings never materialised. Sunanda was last reported seen at 3.30pm in the hotel lounge or lobby which no one has corroborated. Conveniently, the CCTV tapes from the floor of Sunanda’s room also disappear.

# Did one of those journos (some quite friendly with ST) tip him off about the meeting Sunanda had called? I believe that is quite possible.

# So, after 3.30pm no one had seen Sunanda and when ST returns at around 8.30pm he finds Sunanda dead and calls the police.

# After her death, ST is cool as cucumber and not frantic or distraught as you would expect a normal husband to be.

# In a couple of days, ST was sending emails to the autopsy-doctors at AIIMS on ailments and other medical problems Sunanda was going through. There is no record any doctor had called for such information. Such information is neither used nor admissible in doing an autopsy to determine cause of death when it is primarily “unnatural”.

# Not once in the many months after her cremation does ST ever call for a serious investigation on how and why Sunanda died. These are Congis who nowadays call for a CBI probe even if a cockroach dies. How is it that his wife’s “unnatural” death never bothered him one bit? On the contrary, when Swamy filed a PIL to reopen the investigations, ST vehemently opposed it because Swamy was involved. What difference does it make? ST also tried to get a stay against Republic airing any reports on the Sunanda-death but the court declined his request.

# In the entire period after the Sunanda case was buried, ST was thumping his chest frequently, making brazen noises as if to prove he has no guilt and in the final stage he tweets nonsense about Shaw’s quote on wrestling with pigs:

# It seems all that ST was interested in was to see the case buried and not reach a closure on how Sunanda died and who killed her.

# After the hearing on August 31, 2019 the Delhi Police and Prosecution have sought to charge ST with “murder” and I fully agree. ST may not have pulled the trigger but his conduct and entire chain of events make him a suspect of being a “conspirator” to the murder of Sunanda.

# Once ST is charged and arrested, he will be compelled to spill the beans on what exactly happened. Till then, there is no doubt in my mind that he should be prosecuted for murder.

There is another angle that the courts and police and even Swamy are not insisting on. There were “deep bite marks” on the arm of Sunanda. Bite marks are great forensic evidence in crimes even if they may not be as perfect as a “smoking gun”, they add to other evidences. Many across the world have been convicted by evidence of bite marks. The most infamous serial rapist and killer in the US, Ted Bundy, had confessed (after conviction) to killing more than 40 women but some say it may be more than 100. But before his trial, there was not one shred of evidence against him. The ONLY evidence that nailed him was a “bite mark” that he left on one of his last victims. He was convicted only for only 3 murders and not for others. But given that he was given the death sentence and later executed, that conviction was enough to get rid of him.

The witnesses, the circumstantial evidences and the behaviour of ST all point to him being complicit in Sunanda’s death one way or another. And even if that is not the case, there is all evidence that he had severely battered her physically and that is also a separate case he should be charged for. Sunanda was undoubtedly murdered. But it was an “unperfect” murder and ST may have a lot of grinding to do.

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