January 17, 2014 - 4:05 PM
NEW DELHI - The wife of an Indian minister was found dead Friday at a luxury hotel in New Delhi after a controversy over her husband's alleged affair with a Pakistani journalist.
Spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police were investigating the cause of Sunanda Pushkar's death. The Press Trust of India news agency reported the cause was believed to be suicide. Police declined comment.
The marriage of the 52-year-old Pushkar and her husband, junior Human Resources Development Minister Shashi Tharoor, made headlines Thursday when she allegedly tweeted that her husband was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist. The tweets also accused the journalist of being a spy.
On Thursday, Pushkar and her husband released a statement saying they were happily married and that the tweets were unauthorized. It also said Pushkar was resting in a hospital.
Abhinav Kumar, a minister's aide, told reporters on Friday that Tharoor and his wife had moved into the hotel Thursday as some painting work was being done at their home. The minister thought his wife was sleeping when he returned to their suite Friday night after attending a meeting of his governing Congress party. But she was found dead, he said.
Pushkar on Thursday gave a series of rambling interviews to Indian TV stations in which she said she had no intention at the moment to leave her husband. At one point, a newscaster asked if she realized she was speaking on television.
The Pakistani journalist, in interviews with Indian TV stations on Thursday, denied that she was having an affair with Tharoor. She said she had met him in the past for interviews.
Tharoor was U.N. undersecretary-general for communications and public information under former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His name was among those considered for the top U.N. post in 2006, when Ban Ki-moon was voted in.
In 2009, Tharoor won a seat in India's Parliament and later became a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014