New Delhi:
Just weeks before she died
Sunanda Pushkar was taking "fistfuls of medicines" and exhibiting bizarre behaviour that included claims that George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were using her as a sounding board, said a close friend of hers to NDTV.
Tej Saraf, 77, hosted Ms Pushkar and her husband, Congressman Shashi Tharoor, at his Goa home in December 2013. In mid- January, she was found dead at a five-star hotel in Delhi. After months of debate over whether it was a suicide or an accidental overdose,
the police opened a murder inquiry earlier this month that does not name a suspect so far.
Mr Tharoor was
questioned for four hours on Monday night at a police station in the capital. He reportedly admitted the couple were having marital trouble in the months leading upto Ms Pushkar's death. Mr Tharoor has said
he is "stunned" by the police's theory that his wife was killed.
Mr Saraf told NDTV said that during her trip to Goa, Ms Pushkar exhibited fainted twice, once on the beach and then on a boat. "She wasn't eating well, she wasn't sleeping well. She was in a distraught condition," he said, adding that he is willing to testify for the police.
"Sunanda was taking fistfuls of medicines and I told her also that 'what are these for', and she said' I don't sleep very well and I haven't slept for years and so I have Alprax and various painkillers'. In fact we did tell her that this was dangerous," Mr Saraf said.
A medical report - the third in a series - by doctors who conducted Ms Puhkar's post-mortem says there was no evidence that the 51-year-old had a serious medical condition, though Ms Pushkar had spoken of suffering from lupus, an auto-immune disorder. "She told me about lupus two years ago for the first time. My son offered to introduce her to a doctor who is a world authority on lupus but she never showed any interest," said Mr Saraf to NDTV.
Asked why he wants to share his account now, over a year after Ms Pushkar's death, Mr Saraf told NDTV, "I was appalled over the last few weeks by statements being made by various people particularly that lupus was a red herring. I decided to break my silence and tell you what happened during her stay with us over the New Year."
Mr Tharoor was forced to resign as union minister in 2010, after allegations of corruption. Ms Pushkar, who he had not married yet, was gifted equity worth Rs. 70 crore by the Kerala franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Delhi Police Chief BS Bassi has said that the investigation will look at "the IPL angle."