Who was Sunanda Pushkar?

Sunanda was born on January 1, 1962, in a Kashmiri family of landlords. She was the only daughter of Lt. Col. Pushkar Nath Dass and Jaya Dass. She was an Indo-Canadian businessperson and was a sales manager in the Dubai-based TECOM Investments, and a co-owner of the India-based Rendezvous Sports World, which bought the IPL team Kochi Tuskers.

Sunanda was first married to Sanjay Raina who was a Kashmiri Pandit. The relation ended in divorce. After few years, she married Sujith Menon, a Keralite and a close friend of her former husband. Sujith Menon died in a road accident in 1997 in India and was survived by their son Shiv Menon, who is now 21 years old.

Sunanda met Shashi Tharoor during a party in 2009 and soon she started getting media attention in India for his closeness with the politician. She grabbed the headlines soon, but for a controversy over the ownership of IPL team from Kerala 'Kochi Tuskers Kerala'. There were allegations that Tharoor had used her as a shield for collecting Rs 70 crore and helping the Kochi owners get their IPL team.

Sunanda later decided to give away her stake in the IPL team. Hit by the IPL controversy and his infamous tweets, Shashi Tharoor, who was Minister of State for External Affairs then, quit his post. Few months after, Sunanda entered the wedlock with Tharoor on 22 August 2010. The wedding turned out to be the third marriage for both of them.

Sunanda, with her blonde hair, glossy looks and nonchalance, was too modern for the people of Thiruvananthapuram, from where Tharoor won the election. But once she was in Kerala with her husband, she draped around her, along with her bewitching ‘kasavu’ sarees, a sort of grace and dignity that just did not allow the Kerala capital to take her lightly.

Her visit to a school in Kerala along with Tharoor gave the state a real taste of the bold woman that she is. She went straight to the toilet of Manacuad Govt School for Girls and came out looking angry. “Shashi ask them to clean the toilets fast,” she yelled out to her husband. Even though some teachers, aligned to the Left, raised slogans against her, she just ignored them.

Sunanda, the brave lady of Tharoor, again caught the media attention on October 30, 2012 when her MoS for HRD husband was given a reception at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. A Congress worker used the confusion amid huge crowd to misbehave with her. She pulled the youth by his shirt and slapped him thrice. She then refused to attend the official function held in her husband’s honour.

On October 2012, Sunanda was found as a trending topic on Twitter when Gujarat CM Narendra Modi said that Tharoor's wife was once his '50-crore-rupee girlfriend'. Tharoor reacted, again on Twitter, saying, "My wife is worth a lot more than your imaginary 50 crore. She is priceless. But you need to be able to love someone to understand that."

In 2013, various rumours about Sunanda and Tharoor’s troubled marriage started picking media attention. It was said that the couple were spotted attending social events separately. When asked about it, the couple denied all those rumours and were later seen together at social gatherings.

The Tharoor couple was last seen together at the famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram during the 'Lakshadweepam' festival on January 14. After the fest, the duo left to New Delhi.

The latest and the last controversy that surrounded Sunanda's life was an alleged affair of Tharoor with a Pak journalist Mehr Tarar (in picture). It started with Tharoor's Twitter handle posting on his relationship with Tarar. Though it was reported as a hacking event, Sunanda reportedly claimed that she posted those from Tharoor's account. Sunanda also accused Tarar of 'stalking' her husband and being an ISI agent.

Shashi Tharoor tried to resolve the issue by stating that his account was hacked, but Sunanda denied it by saying she was the one who tweeted from Tharoor's account. Photo shows the Pakistan journalist Mehr Tarar. Following the controversy, Sunanda reportedly mentioned to media that she would seek divorce from the Union Minister. Picture shows a screenshot of Sunanda's tweets.

It was a day after the Twitter controversy that Sunanda was found dead in the hotel room. When Tharoor reached the hotel room after the AICC meeting, he found the door of her room locked from the inside. She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found that she was dead.

Delhi police sources said that it was Tharoor who informed the police about his wife's death. Later arrangements were made to take her body to AIIMS for postmortem.

Abhinav Kumar, the private secretary of Shashi Tharoor talking to media after Sunanda Pushkar was found dead.

Upon hearing the news of Sunanda Pushkar's death, Mehr Trar tweeted: "What the hell. Sunanda. Oh my God." "I just woke up and read this. I'm absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don't know what to say. Rest in peace, Sunanda," she added.

Shashi Tharoor was admitted to AIIMS early on Saturday morning for a 'cardiac condition', hours after he found his wife was found dead. A team of cardiologists carried out a series of tests on him including ECG and kept him under observation. As his tests report came normal and his condition was stable, he was discharged

Forensic experts along with police were at the spot to examine the scene of occurrence. In contrary to the earlier reports, autopsy reports say that there were injury marks found on her body and also said that those injuries may or may not be related to her death. The AIIMS team has videographed the entire post mortem process.

Doctors addressing the media after the autopsy of Sunanda Pushkar in New Delhi. Doctors said that it was a case of 'sudden, unnatural death' and added that the nature of the injuries cannot be revealed.

An emotional Shashi Tharoor and Shiv Menon are seen inside an ambulance after receiving Sunanda's body from AIIMS, New Delhi on Saturday. Different theories have emerged on her possible cause of death. Sunanda was cremated in Delhi, with her son lighting the pyre, thus bringing the tragic end to her eventful life.