New Delhi, Feb 25 – Five weeks after Sunanda Pushkar’s mysterious death at a New Delhi hotel, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy are locked in a verbal war.
Pushkar’s husband Tharoor has dared Swamy to furnish proof of a foul play while Swamy has hit back at him, saying there was evidence of poisoning.
“From belly upwards Sunanda had horrific injuries. Her nostrils were squeezed to open her mouth to administer Russian poison,” Swamy tweeted on Monday.
But Tharoor said he has stopped taking Swamy seriously.
“As far as we are concerned, we had absolutely nothing to be worried about in terms of ourselves. If Subramanian Swamy has some inside information about some murder, believe me the family would be the first to want to know. I have long stopped taking Swamy seriously,” Tharoor told Headlines Today.
However, Swamy said he would bring the case to its conclusion once there is a change in government at the Centre.
“I will have to file either a PIL or when there is a government that is more responsive to the public, like Narendra Modi’s government, at that time I will take it up and see that it (the case) is brought to a conclusion,” Swamy told Headlines Today.
“Why is Shashi Tharoor feeling so nervous? He should be one who should be standing up and say I want a complete inquiry to be done. Why did he get rushed through the cremation of his wife within a day? This is ridiculous. There are many things which are wrong with it,” Swamy said.
Reacting to the charges, Tharoor said: “Frankly, grief is a very private emotion. I don’t think anybody in the BJP has any business to know what I am feeling and in fact if they did, they should immediately qualify for psychology or a psychiatry degree”.
However, Swamy said sources in the Delhi Police have told him in private that it was a “gruesome murder”.
“Why is Tharoor so keen to declare the case as death due to natural causes? We want to get to the bottom of the matter. What is the need to have no photos token of her body? Whatever photos were taken was destroyed. Delhi police probe is not moving forward. Police sources till me in private that it is a gruesome murder.”
Swamy, however, said this was not the BJP’s stand. “This is not a party issue.”
Pushkar was found dead days after she was locked in a bitter Twitter tiff with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, suspecting her of having an affair with her husband. Tarar denied the allegations though.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi told Headlines Today that police was carrying out necessary inquiries. “The outcome will soon be submitted to concerned quarters,” he said.
– INDIA TODAY
