We need justice not only for Sunanda Pushkar but Shashi Tharoor too

Every few months, media channels go berserk in their quest for justice in the Sunanda Pushkar death case. Half-truths are placed as incontrovertible facts, commentators with vested interests are allowed a platform to make unsubstantiated claims on the case. In fact, in the course of this trial by media, so far little attention has been paid to the details that really matter. Here is my attempt to summarise just a few of them even as friends in the media go on another self-serving crusade for the truth!

Tharoor isn’t even a suspect

Firstly, Shashi Tharoor is neither an accused nor a suspect. No less than the Delhi Police commissioner, in his numerous interviews to TV channels on just this one special case, has acknowledged that. He has also added that the cops weren't clear, till date, whether Sunanda's death was in fact a murder, a natural death caused by 25 years of paracetamol drug abuse along with advancing lupus, or suicide. 

Where’s the chemical evidence?

On what basis does the forensic doctor at AIIMS, Dr Sudhir Gupta, allege poisoning? There was neither any visual evidence of poison, nor chemical evidence. The CBI's own CFSL lab said that the only elements present in her body were alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and paracetamol. So what led Dr Gupta to allege poisoning when there's no shred of evidence for such a theory? Since when do police go on fishing expeditions for unknown poisons?

What about FBI findings?

The police have still not established that there was a murder. They have sent the viscera report to the FBI in the USA.  Usually, the FBI sends feedback within two to three weeks. Instead, we have had silence from Delhi police for four months now. Could they apprise the public of what the FBI has said? Is there any basis in the FBI findings to substantiate a murder theory? If not, then why these continuing questions and lie detector tests? Why defamation by media instead of placing the findings of their investigation before a court?  

Swamy’s fanciful claims

When Subramanian Swamy claims that Shashi Tharoor resorted to lies, or used to beat up Sunanda, or poured poison into her mouth, why does the media report such nonsense uncritically without asking the simple question “how do you know?” How can Swamy “know” unless he was present? Or has some eyewitness whom he can point to? What gives him a licence to make fanciful claims without a shred of evidence, and why does the media report it without the most elementary fact checking? If he knows something with respect to the commission of an alleged offence, should he not record his statement with the police rather than make sensational claims in the media?

False claims and leaks

Where in the world is a police investigation conducted on the basis of leaks? With the media trial that has occurred, hasn't the chance of a fair trial been irretrievably compromised? If the media was indeed fair, why did they not report extensively the fact that the CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) had dismissed the allegations of force and pressure tactics being applied by Tharoor on Dr Gupta at the AIIMS? Many misery hunters in the media, including the likes of Swamy, had reported an unsubstantiated allegation made by Dr. Gupta saying that Shashi Tharoor had asked the former to change his forensic report findings! Why does the media still provide a platform to people whose false claims have been busted several times?

Sunanda’s bruises

Isn't it bizarre that the police want information on issues like the bruises on Sunanda's body from people who couldn't possibly have known, whereas they have received testimony from her husband Shashi Tharoor, from the close friend who stayed with her in the hospital and from friends who saw her the night before her death, about the bruising caused by injections and IV needles during her hospital stay?

She had lupus

Isn't it a fact that Sunanda had herself told many people including writer Shobhaa De, television actor Naseer Abdullah and others, that she suffered from lupus and had also tweeted about this? Isn't it a fact that the KIMS medical report and discharge summary, which was the last available record of her health prior to her death, also hinted at this possibility? Isn't it a fact that an old family friend Tej Saraf claimed that Sunanda was taking fistful of medicines and saying delusional things, which reflected that Sunanda was not in the best of health just before her death?

Tharoor has always cooperated

Sunanda's family including her biological son Shiv Menon and her brothers have steadfastly stood by Tharoor, claiming that he could never harm her in any way. Moreover, from day one Tharoor has cooperated with the SDM probe and has made himself available as a witness for the Delhi Police to record his statements as a law-abiding citizen. 

Let him grieve in peace

Given this equally compelling narrative of Sunanda's death mystery, one that is founded on facts, which TRP-driven TV newschannels tend to ignore, isn't it incumbent upon all of us, to first and foremost respect the fact that Shashi Tharoor continues to be an innocent man who lost the love of his life in Sunanda and has still not been afforded a chance to grieve? 

May be the first step towards justice in the Sunanda death case would be to not do injustice to Shashi Tharoor?