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Indian Minister Shashi Tharoor's deceased wife Sunanda Pushkar's son -- from her second marriage -- has rejected the possibility of her mother ending her own life, but also ruled out the possibility of her step father "physically harming" her.
Shiv Menon's statement came a day after a magistrate, heading the inquest into 52-year-old Sunanda's death, ordered the police to probe into suicide and murder angles in the wake of an autopsy report which indicated that she died of "drug poisoning" and several injury marks were also found on her body.
"Anyone who knew my mother would simply know that she was too strong to commit suicide. I also do not believe that Shashi was capable of physically harming her, let alone the speculation that he could have taken her life. They were very much in love, despite occasional differences, which they always overcame," Shiv Menon said in his statement released to the media.
He added: "It was an unfortunate combination of media stress, tensions and a wrong mix of different medications. Her death was peaceful and she passed in her sleep. Please let her soul rest, I think there has been enough attention drawn towards her life -- let us at least let her rest in her passing."
Sunanda was cremated Saturday evening and the funeral pyres were lit by Tharoor and Menon, hours after the autopsy at the premier All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in the national capital.
In fact, it was the 57-year-old politician who had found her wife lying dead on the bed of their suite at a five-star hotel in the national capital Friday evening, after returning from a daylong conclave of the ruling Congress party, and he then informed the police about the death, one of his aides claimed.
The couple had checked into the hotel Thursday due to some painting work at their official residence, the aide claimed, contradicting media reports which suggested Sunanda checked in Wednesday evening while the junior Indian Human Resource Development Minister came there a day after.
Sunanda was reportedly upset over her husband's alleged illicit affair with a Pakistani journalist with whom she had a war of words through micro-blogging site Twitter. However, the couple -- who got married in 2010, their third wedding -- had Thursday issued a joint statement, saying they were happily married and intended to stay together.
While the 45-year-old Pakistani columnist Mehr Tarar has denied the claims of an affair, Tharoor -- a former United Nations diplomat who became Under Secretary General under Kofi Annan but lost the race for the top job to Ban Ki-moon in 2006 -- is tight- lipped on the matter.
Tharoor joined the ruling Congress party after resigning from the United Nations in 2007, and became a Member of Parliament from the southern state of Kerala in 2009.
