Indian minister urges inquiry into wife\\\'s death
Monday, 20 January 2014
NEW DELHI, Jan 19 (AFP): Indian minister Shashi Tharoor, whose wife was found dead in a luxury hotel room, called Sunday for a swift inquiry so the truth "can come out as soon as possible", an official said.
Tharoor wrote to the home minister on Sunday to pledge his full cooperation with investigations into his wife's death on Friday, after she exposed his alleged adultery with a Pakistani journalist on Twitter.
"Mr. Tharoor has requested the home minister to expedite the inquiry so that the truth behind his wife's death can come out as soon as possible," Tharoor's private secretary Abhinav Kumar told AFP.
"He is in a state of shock. He is anxious and keen to know the truth... what happened that day, no one can say."
Tharoor, the junior human resources development minister, found his wife Sunanda Pushkar dead in her five-star room in New Delhi on Friday evening after he returned from a party meeting.
The death was a tragic twist in a tale of apparent marital strife that has played out in full view of the public in India's newspapers and on social media.
A magistrate charged with investigating Pushkar's death is expected to record Tharoor's statement after he scatters his wife's ashes on Monday, Kumar said.
Tharoor will travel to the holy town of Haridwar for the ceremony after her body was cremated according to Hindu rites on Saturday in the capital, Kumar said.