In Sunanda Pushkar Case, Crew Asked About In-Flight Fight

New Delhi: The crew of an Air India flight on which politician Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar fought publicly a year ago was questioned today by the Delhi Police, said sources. Earlier this month, the police launched a murder investigation, alleging that Ms Puskhar, who was found dead at a five-star hotel in the capital in January 2014, was poisoned.

The murder case does not name any suspects. Mr Tharoor has not yet been questioned by the police. (Sunanda Pushkar Death: Medical Report That Led to Filing of Murder Case)

Ms Pushkar was found dead in her bed at a hotel suite days after she publicly accused her husband, then a union minister, of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.  Before that, the couple reportedly argued vociferously on a flight to Delhi from Kerala, which is Mr Tharoor's home state. (In Sunanda Pushkar FIR, Police Explains Reasons for Murder Case)

The politician said that he was "stunned" by the police's decision to treat his wife's death as a murder. He said that he has offered his complete assistance to the investigation and that last week, he wrote to police commissioner BS Bassi, pointing out concerns about the manner in which the inquiry was being conducted. Mr Tharoor, a Lok Sabha member, said the investigation must be free of political pressure. In a letter last year to Mr Bassi, which surfaced only recently, he had accused the police of assaulting his domestic helper during interrogation to force him to "confess" that he, along with Mr Tharoor, had killed Ms Pushkar. (What Shashi Tharoor Told Investigators After Wife Sunanda Pushkar's Death)

The police chief has said those accusations are baseless. (Politician Shashi Tharoor's Allegations Are False, Says Delhi Police Chief)