Over a week after Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a South Delhi hotel, the Delhi Police probe into the “sudden and unnatural” occurrence has not made any major headway with the case shuttling between two units.
The probe has travelled back and forth between the South District and the Crime Branch in the last three days and officers from both the units claim ignorance over the rationale behind the frequent shifts. “Investigations into the case are presently going nowhere,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
The Hindu spoke to some of the officers from the Crime Branch and the South Delhi units but none of them could explain why the probe, resumed by the district after the submission of the inquest report by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate, was abruptly terminated at their end or why was it asked to take up investigations all over again.
The SDM had in his report recommended a probe on the possible homicidal, suicidal or accidental death.
The decision to send the probe back to the South Delhi unit was taken on Saturday, even before the Crime Branch could receive all the documents pertaining to the case.
On the status of the probe, a police source said that they were waiting for several forensic reports, which were pivotal in carrying the investigations forward. Among them, he said, was the report of Ms. Pushkar’s phone seized from the spot and footages from the CCTV cameras installed in the hotel.
The viscera report, which is expected to conclusively establish the nature of the poison that led to the death, is also awaited.
Asked if the police would obtain the mobile phone of Mr. Tharoor on which (as disclosed by Ms. Pushkar on Twitter), he received Blackberry messages from Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, police sources said they could do so if it was needed to establish the “disturbing circumstances” in which Ms. Pushkar found herself in the days leading up to her death. (EOM)
