![[FILE] Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor | AFP](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/news/india/images/2018/5/24/sunanda-pushkar-tharoor-afp24518.jpg "[FILE] Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor | AFP")
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday lashed out at a section of media for reporting things without checking facts, in an apparent reference to the alleged sensationalisation of the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
“I am bitter about a section of media reporting things without checking. One BJP leader said that I poisoned Sunanda. Where is the evidence? No journalist asked that leader,” Tharoor said at The Town Hall, hosted by THE WEEK’s Contributing Editor Barkha Dutt, in Kochi. Organised by THE WEEK and Mojo, The Town Hall is a series of conversations held across India. Presented by Federal Bank, this edition had additional support from Audi India.
“Lies that they know to be false are taken as a premise of a discussion, and it brings contempt to those who claim to practice journalism,” said the Thiruvananthapuram MP.
Tharoor had earlier filed a civil defamation suit against Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and his channel seeking damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him while airing news relating to the death of Sunanda Pushkar.
The Congress leader also trained his guns at his political opponents and said: “Politicians cross political divide to condole death. But a bereavement, in my case, was used as a weapon against me. That was painful.”
Tharoor recently sent a legal notice to Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad for allegedly calling him a murder accused. In the notice, his lawyer claimed that the MP is neither charge-sheeted for the offence nor is he an accused in a case of murder.
Tharoor revealed that he fell ill many times after the death of his wife. “I had to take seven courses of antibiotics. My personal staff intervened and put me in an Ayurveda treatment for 3-4 days. That was a much-needed break,” he said.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in room number 345 of the Leela Palace hotel in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi on January 17, 2014. The Delhi police are still probing the case.
