Doctors carry out post-mortem on Sunanda Pushkar`s body

A three-doctor panel was constituted to conduct the postmortem examination of union Minister Shashi Tharoor`s wife Sunanda Pushkar.

New Delhi: A three-member team of senior doctors at AIIMS here on Saturday began post-mortem on the body of Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, even as police continued to probe various angles including suicide in the case.

Hours after his wife was found dead, the 57-year-old Union Minister of State for Human Resources was admitted to AIIMS after complaining of chest pain. Sudhir Gupta, the head of Forensic Sciences Department at AIIMS, said the post-mortem is being videographed to ensure transparency in the procedure. Pushkar was found dead in her suite at the Leela Palace hotel last evening and the body was shifted to AIIMS at around 3:30 am for post-mortem. Tharoor was admitted to the ICU of the cardiothoracic centre of the AIIMS and a number of investigations including ECG were carried out on him. The minister was discharged at around 12 noon. Doctors said he was brought to the hospital with a "cardiac condition" but he is stable now. Continuing investigation, police questioned a number of hotel staff and checked the CCTV footage of the lobby of the third floor of the luxury hotel where she was staying. Sources in police said call details record as well as Pushkar`s tweets were being checked. Pushkar and Tharoor had checked into the hotel on Thursday as their home was being painted. A number of hotel staff, including those who had gone to her suite, were being questioned to corroborate the version of Tharoor and his staff. Pushkar and Tharoor were at the centre of a raging controversy when reports emerged that she was upset over reported text and tweet messages between her husband and Mehr Tarar, a Pakistani journalist. Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said inquest proceedings have been initiated by the sub-divisional magistrate of the area. Any death within seven years of marriage is legally required to be investigated by the sub-divisional magistrate. Gupta said the post-mortem will take at least two hours and after that the findings will be scrutinised and, if needed to be shared, will be given to the media. Pushkar and Tharoor had checked into the hotel on Thursday as their home was being painted. A joint statement from the couple on Thursday said that they were "happily married" but distressed by "some unauthorised tweets". Pushkar had accused Tarar of "stalking" her husband and trying to "break" her marriage when she was away for medical treatment. She had told couple of newspapers that she was considering divorce from Tharoor in the wake of the alleged extra-marital affair. The Pakistani journalist rubbished the charges of having any relationship with Tharoor, who is Congress Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram. After Pushkar`s death Tarar had tweeted: "I just woke up and read this. I`m absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don`t know what to say. Rest in peace, Sunanda." Asked about the cause of death, Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat had said there is no apparent sign which can reveal that.