It was exactly seven years ago when Sunanda Pushkar, businesswoman, socialite and wife of Congress politician and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a Leela Palace Hotel suite in New Delhi. Her body was discovered by her husband and his two aides when they returned at night to the hotel after attending the All India Congress Committee session held on the same day (17 January 2014). The deceased had 12 injury marks on her body but her unnatural death was either caused by over consumption of drugs and alcohol or due to poisoning. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had alleged that Sunanda was administered some “Russian poison” even as the police tried to figure out whether it was a case of suicide or murder. Tharoor was sought to be charged under both abetment to suicide as well as under Section 498-A which relates to causing cruelty and harassment to a woman. A day before the death, Sunanda, who had earlier been undergoing medical treatment at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, had a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, who she claimed was attempting to gather Tharoor’s affection in order to wean him away from her.
The case hit the headlines in the same manner in which the untimely death of upcoming actor Sushant Singh Rajput had caught the entire nation’s attention in June last year. There were also several conspiracy theories, one of which suggested that Sunanda may have been the victim of the notorious Dubai-based cricket betting Mafia. The crime had also brought back memories of some other mysterious murders that had taken place in January as far back as 40 years ago. The most sensational matter was that of Constable Tejpal Singh, who was found dead inside the Ashoka Road official residence of former Union minister Bhagwat Jha Azad on 25 January 1981. The official version was that the policeman was shot dead by an unknown intruder who had barged into the minister’s bungalow. Curiously, no blood was found at the scene of the crime even though it was claimed that Tejpal Singh had been shot through the heart, lungs and liver. Forensic experts had their own theories which included that Tejpal may have been shot after he was already dead thus explaining why no blood marks were there. The wounds appeared to be post-mortem and not ante-mortem. The case continues to be in the archives of unsolved cases.
Another such January murder was that of Afsar Hussain, a prominent IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh, who was shot dead at the Ambassador Hotel in the capital while he was with a woman companion, on 2 January 1980. Afsar Hussain was the DC of Sultanpur district when Sanjay Gandhi had first contested his maiden election from Amethi in 1977. Investigations revealed that the bureaucrat was apparently killed by a close relative, who suspected him of adultery; interestingly, the gun used for the crime was the same from which shots had been fired on Sanjay’s convoy during the 1977 campaign. The matter was hushed up and very little is known of what happened thereafter. The truth behind Sunanda Pushkar may also similarly never come out.