Sunanda Tharoor cremated; doctors say she died a 'sudden, unnatural death'

New Delhi: The mortal remains of Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel last night, were consigned to flames today in presence of her family members.

Sunanda's 21-year-old son Shiv Menon lit the pyre. Pushkar's husband Union minister Shashi Tharoor, her father and brother were among the family members present at the Lodhi Road crematorium.

Earlier, her body was taken from AIIMS to Tharoor's residence at Lodhi Estate where a number of prominent political leaders including Defence Minister A K Antony, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit paid tributes to her.

Menon, who performed the last rites, is Sunanda's son from previous marriage.

A three-member panel of doctors headed by Dr Sudhir K Gupta had conducted an autopsy on Sunanda's body in AIIMS and stated that she died a "sudden unnatural death" with her body bearing several injury marks.

52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi last night, a day after her twitter spat with a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor. However, Sunanda and Tharoor had issued a joint statement declaring they were happily married.

The three member team of doctors conducted a post-mortem on the body this afternoon in the presence of a magistrate after which head of the panel, Dr Sudhir Gupta, who is the chief of the Forensic Sciences Department at at AIIMS, said it was a case of "sudden, unnatural death".

Dr Adarsh Kumar, Additional Professor Forensic Medicines and one of the doctors who conducted the post-mortem, was asked if poisoning has not been ruled out as cause of the death. "Of course", he replied, indicating that poisoning had not been ruled out.

"If any person is suffering from disease, the terminal event may be something else. It does not matter. Let the investigation be over," he said.

According to a source, Sunanda's body bore injuries in her hand and face but they appear unlikely to be the cause of her death. She appears to have died between 1PM and 7PM yesterday.

Sunanda was known to be suffering from stomach tuberculosis and Lupus, an auto-immune disorder which can lead to rashes or marks.

Dr Kumar confirmed that Sunanda was suffering from these health problems and said that details of her treatment had been sought.

Dr Gupta said Sunanda's body had "certain injuries" butrefused to give details. "I cannot reveal the details of the injuries. Basically, in medico-legal cases, the number of injuries does not matter. Whether these injuries relate to fatality or not matters."

A doctor said that there are cases in which a person may consume excessive alcohol and pass-out thereby losing control over their airways which get blocked leading to gastric aspiration which, in turn, causes acute pneumonia or even death.

However, doctors concerned with the case refused to speculate on the cause of the death in the absence of a complete post-mortem report.

The doctors described these as initial findings and said a clear picture would emerge after couple of days after they receive toxicological analysis and complete a visco- pathological examination. The post-mortem has been videographed.