Sunanda Pushkar’s friends in Dubai expressed surprise at the development surrounding their friend’s death

Sunanda Pushkar’s friends in Dubai expressed surprise at the development surrounding their friend’s death, with some extending their full support to her husband, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

The Delhi Police chief on Tuesday revealed that the late Dubai-based real estate entrepreneur and wife of the then Indian minister, who was found dead in a hotel in India’s capital last January, did not commit suicide as earlier suspected.

• In this photograph taken on March 12, 2012, former junior minister for external affairs and Congress Party Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor (R) and his wife Sunanda Pushkar arrive at parliament for the opening of the budget session in New Delhi.

“It can never be a murder. This is purely politically-motivated and possibly an attempt to sabotage Shashi Tharoor’s career. I have known them individually and as a couple, he would never hurt her. A murder is impossible. I have always believed that Shashi is a sharp politician, but unfit for Indian politics and its way of functioning,” said Prakash Bhojwani.

Her other close friend, Riyaz Merchant, who had known Pushkar since 2005, when they became friends when they started working in real estate, expressed his disappointment at the way in which the investigations have been carried out.

“This murder charge has taken me by surprise. But what angers me more is that it’s such a faulty judicial system. It took them a year to come to this conclusion and it’s all so mysterious. I wonder if this latest development is a publicity stunt or some politically-motivated game. All this will make sense only if the perpetrators behind that crime — if committed — [are] brought forward. But why is it taking them so long in their investigations? It took them one year to reach to this conclusion, will it take them three or five years to bring the perpetrators to the front?” asked Merchant.

He had hosted Pushkar’s wedding reception in his penthouse apartment in Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers in 2010.

“At the end of the day, if there was a crime committed against anyone then the wronged one should be made known. It’s all so mysterious that they first called Sunanda’s reason of death as drug overdose and now a year later they decide it was a murder,” Merchant added.

Pushkar’s friend Renu Kaur slammed the latest murder claim as a “conspiracy to tarnish Tharoor’s reputation”.

“I don’t know where all this is leading to. All we know is that Shashi [Tharoor] is a dear friend of our family. I have seen how he cared for her and he would never hurt even an ant. He’s too nice a person. This is some sort of plot or a conspiracy to defame him. Think about it: why would anybody benefit from her death and what would they attain from it?,” said Kaur, who claims to know Pushkar’s son, Shiv, too.

Meanwhile, an emotionally shattered Regina Mazhar, who knew Pushkar for more than a decade and had spent considerable time with her in Kerala, said the latest developments opened new wounds.

“I am too emotional to comment about anything. This brings back all my memories with her and it’s just painful to speak about it,” said Mazhar.