‘Drug overdose’ caused Pushkar death

Doctors who carried out an autopsy on the body of Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of an Indian federal minister, are reportedly of the view that she died of a drug overdose though a formal report is awaited.

The deceased Pushkar was the wife of Indian federal minister Shashi Tharoor.  Her death on Friday came in the aftermath of a public spat between the couple over an alleged extra-marital affair of the minister with a Pakistani journalist.

The doctors initially had said she died a “sudden, unnatural death”.

The minister,  Tharoor, was at the Congress session in New Delhi at the time when his wife was reported to have died.

On Monday  reports quoting doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who had performed the autopsy, said the drug overdose was the most likely cause of Pushkar’s death.

The reports said the autopsy revealed that the deceased had taken anti-depressants at the time of her death. 

Under treatment

Pushkar was  under treatment for a life-threatening  condition called lupus, an auto-immune disease and was also suffering from tuberculosis of the liver, reports said, quoting her close friends. She was under psychological stress too,  said reports.

A couple of days preceding her death,  Pushkar got into a rage over what she perceived was Tharoor’s affair with a Pakistani journalist. She then accessed Tharoor’s Twitter account and sent out messages that revealed a certain relationship between her husband and the journalist.

The Pakistani journalist has denied any affair and has termed it a conspiracy.  While acknowledging she was friends with Tharoor, she said the minister and his wife were already in a troubled marriage much before she became friends with him, reports quoting her said.