Indian police grill Shashi Tharoor over wife´s murder

New Delhi: Delhi police questioned a former high-flying UN diplomat and Indian government minister late Monday in connection with his wife´s murder, a case that has dominated local media headlines.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a five-star hotel room in the capital last January, two days after she alleged on Twitter that her husband Shashi Tharoor had been having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.

Pushkar, married to Tharoor since 2010, had been taking medication for various illnesses and early autopsy results suggested she may have overdosed on anti-depressants and sleeping pills.

But earlier this month, Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi said new medical reports had led investigators to register a case of murder "against unknown persons".

Television footage late Monday showed 57-year-old Tharoor leaving his New Delhi residence flanked by security guards, pursued by a huge media scrum.

Later images showed him sitting across from a few officers, gesticulating with one hand, at a police station near the luxury Leela Palace hotel where his wife´s body was discovered.

Some reports indicated that the interrogation could resume on Tuesday.

Days after his wife´s death was registered as a murder, Tharoor described himself as "a bereaved husband" who would not engage in "public polemics", adding that he would fully cooperate with investigations.

Pushkar´s death had initially triggered intense speculation that she had committed suicide after being humiliated by her husband.

But a year on, dozens of 24-hour news stations have devoted relentless coverage and analyst debates over Tharoor´s possible role in the murder, prompting the former minister to term it a media trial where he was "being defamed now day in and day out".

Her death dealt a severe blow to the image of Tharoor, who was a cabinet minister at the time and remains a member of parliament for the Congress party which lost elections last May.

Also an acclaimed author, Tharoor served as under-secretary general during Kofi Annan´s leadership of the United Nations and was a candidate to replace him as secretary-general in 2008.

After being beaten to the post by Ban Ki-moon, he then entered Indian politics as a member of parliament for the southern state of Kerala.

Tharoor had to resign from his first ministerial post in 2010 after revelations that his then-girlfriend Pushkar had been given a free stake in a new Indian Premier League cricket team.