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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The Political End Of The Gandhis

There’s something common about all corrupt leaders at the top. They manipulate systems, try and destroy democratic institutions and make every effort to destroy political opponents. They keep it at it till the end is inevitable. The most prominent one is the case of Richard Nixon. He and his loyal foot-soldiers manipulated every institution and destroyed many political opponents to ensure electoral success for his second term. Unfortunately for Nixon he kept tapes of the conversations at his office which eventually caused his downfall. Whenever in trouble, Nixon and his little coterie always managed to “get around” the hurdles. They somehow “managed” it; until the US Supreme Court ordered the tapes be surrendered as evidence. Here’s a little exchange between Alexander Haig (then White House Chief of Staff) and Nixon (from his bio-pic) during the last days of office:

That date being referred to, June 23, 1972, is the date of reports a few days after the Watergate burglary (June 17). The burglary itself didn’t cost Nixon all that much but it led to the discovery of a whole web of corrupt operations. Nixon wasn’t after any personal monetary gain or wealth. Alexander Haig tells him “It’s the SC, you don’t get around it”. In what Robert Vadra calls a “Banana republic” Nixon would have happily continued. In “Banana republics” even SC judges can be bought. You just have to hear Prabhu Chawla in the Radia tapes to understand that. The Congress and Sonia Gandhi have also manipulated and destroyed many democratic institutions. You just have to know the modus operandi. The National Herald scam involving the Gandhis is one such operation. It has even attracted an IT notice for a political party lending money to a commercial business house. There doesn’t seem to be a way to “get around it” as many of the Congress and alliance ministers have “got around it” in the last decade. The question is: why were these people so brazen?

Although they aren’t showing it, it must be the biggest heartache for Congress and their clones to find that the man they wanted to burn in hell is now the PM. It must hurt them that he has outsmarted all of them to secure a clear majority in the elections. Nothing explains how the Congress hoped to come back to power or support a “khichdi govt” formed with its support than Dileep Padgaonkar’s belated confession (Read here). Padgaonkar wrote: “The dread possibility of ‘communal’ forces coming to power, we believed, would override all other concerns of the electorate”. In other words, fear-mongering, fake secularism, Muslim-appeasement and tainting opponents would help the Congress somehow control power at the centre. Media crooks like Padgaonkar, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami and Intellectual Morons like Amartya Sen, Ram Guha and others hoped and expected BJP would fail to get a clear majority. Here’s part of the coterie that Sonia Gandhi, Congress and media crooks hoped would see them through:

We all know how Mulayam and Maya were continuously hounded and manipulated through CBI. DMK was a partner in crime. The murderous CPM is an “ideological” spouse of the Congress. The JDU driven by one man’s lust for power that broke up with BJP. The step-child of Congress called the AAP. The NCP that has equal number of scams to its credit. And key media crooks cleverly campaigning for Congress-UPA to return. One can recall Arnab’s non-stop slavery of Priyanka Vadra as if she was the next queen of India. SoniaG and Congress had hoped that somehow these clones would garner enough seats to either support the Congress to form a govt or they would form a govt that also includes AIADMK, TMC, BJD etc which the Congress can prop up from outside to keep the evil “communal forces” out of power. In particular, they hoped that would stop the man they wanted dead from becoming PM.

The Congress knew the tide was against it but it was this hope that they can somehow cobble up a non-BJP govt that fuelled the belief that they can “get around it”. That even if court cases came up against the Gandhis, they would “get around it”. It is this brazenness that led to many scams, including the National Herald one. The magistrate who has summoned the Gandhis and others on August 7 has observed: “It appears that Young India was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Associated Journals Ltd assets worth over Rs 2,000 crore”. The DNA article linked here adds “K Vikram Rao of Indian Federation of Working Journalists states that the alleged misappropriation of Rs 2,000 crore is ' the tip of the iceberg. We are planning to implead ourselves in the petition in the court. It is a huge scandal and needs to be probed by the premier investigators of the country. This scam is bigger than Sahara," said Rao, whose father was the founder editor of Associated Journals in 1938”. 

The case is not going to be concluded anytime soon and will drag on for some years as most Indian cases do. The unfortunate part about that, in this one, is that it may keep the Gandhis embroiled in a legal tangle. Years ago such a case would not have dented the Gandhis too much because of equity the Gandhi name had with people. After all, there are millions who believed these fake Gandhis are somehow related to MKGandhi. But the thrashing they got in the recent elections which resulted in a miserable 44 seats to the Congress is proof that Indians have finally woken up to the fake Gandhis. Time and technology dismantles many myths and lies. Leadership is often tested more in adverse situations than in good ones. Both Sonia and Rahul aren’t really great leaders in the first place. The latter is more a useless burden on the party. SoniaG could claim some credit for restoring the Congress party’s standing after the previous NDA govt but much of her political capital has eroded since then with the corruption taint. The third left-over Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra, has shown immaturity in her political campaigns and other than emotional and childish gibberish had nothing to offer. I therefore believe that this is the end of the Gandhis politically.

Historically, the only thing Congress knew when they were in opposition was how to manipulate, horse-trade, bribe, induce and bring down govts. Every non-Congress govt in our history has been brought down by the Congress except the last term of AB Vajpayee and it is not because Congress did not try. This time, the Congress is in no position to bring down the BJP govt which has a single-party majority. This is something no politician, no pundit and no media crook ever imagined would happen. That is one of SoniaG’s biggest hurdles for a return. In case of Indira Gandhi, the serious cases against her for the Emergency crimes got wiped out because she could bring down what she called the “Khichdi” govt and return to power. The NH case is not going to be wiped out. On the contrary, one can expect more cases to follow and there is every reason why even Robert and Priyanka Vadra may also face court cases for land deals. Also, Subramaniam Swamy who is following the Sunanda Pushkar murder case has alleged that the Kochi IPL scam money belongs to Robert Vadra. Things get even murkier.

They say it’s a serious mistake to write off politicians. Well, I have done that before and I am starting to enjoy it. I predicted in “Reincarnation of Arvind Kejriwal” that he is finished and AK helped himself to doom. AK even insisted on realising his last dream of ending up in jail as that post hoped he wouldn’t. His recent utterances do not indicate he has learned any lessons. AK, of course, has age on his side and can re-invent himself if he so chooses. But SoniaG doesn’t have that advantage. By 2019 SoniaG will be 72 and given Congress claims of her health it is unlikely she will be able to cope with anymore gruelling campaigns. Even in the 2014 LS campaign she had a much restricted campaign and the gaps were made by RahulG and Priyanka Vadra. Rahul and Mrs Vadra filled the gaps quite badly to leave no future expectations from them. A senior Congress leader in Kerala called Rahul a “joker”. Even the family poodle Digvijaya Singh now says RahulG lacks temperament and avoided leadership by not becoming head of the Congress LS group.

The worst truth was to come in the form of a belated confession by AK Antony who said “People have lost faith in the secular credentials of the party. They have a feeling that the Congress bats for a few communities, especially minorities”. The confession is half-hearted. He should have clearly said Congress bats for Muslims and Christians. Sonia’s inner coterie would reflect that kind of batting. The UP results have shown even Muslims aren’t buying the Congress “fake secularism” anymore. All the elderly Congis are suddenly finding the nerve to speak which they couldn’t when they were in power. There is good reason to believe this country has moved on from the dynasty. I see no way that the Gandhis will command the influence they did in the past. They will not disappear but the last elections and current events certainly signal the end of the Gandhis.