Indian minister accused of adultery promises full co-operation with inquiry into wife’s death

An Indian government minister promised to co-operate with an investigation into the death of his wife days after she accused him of adultery.

Shashi Tharoor's wife was found dead in a luxury hotel room in New Delhi after she went public on Twitter, saying a Pakistan-based journalist had been stalking her husband.

A postmortem revealed that Sunanda Pushkar's death was "sudden and unnatural" and that her body bore injury marks. Mr Tharoor, a former UN diplomat, called for a quick investigation into the death of his wife to put an end to rumours about their personal lives.

"I have finally had a chance to catch up with media reports and am horrified to read the reckless speculation rampant there," Mr Tharoor, a junior human resource development minister, wrote to home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Mr Tharoor and his wife hit the headlines earlier this week when Sunanda said she had gone into his Twitter account and posted what she said were intimate messages from Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar to expose a "rip-roaring affair".

Tarar hit back saying she would sue Sunanda for calling her a Pakistani spy and denied she had an affair with her husband. An Indian magistrate is expected to question Mr Tharoor within a day or two. Under Indian criminal law, a magistrate must conduct an inquiry if a woman has died within seven years of marriage. – (Reuters)