Journalist Nalini Singh on Friday reportedly told the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Delhi Police probing former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death, that she had disclosed to her that she had taken the bullet for Tharoor over the controversy surrounding the IPl Kochi team.
Singh, who was questioned by SIT, said Sunanda mentioned to her about the IPl issue a day before she was found dead in a luxury hotel, sources said. It may be noted that SIT had also questioned another television journalist, Rahul Kanwal in this connection on Thursday.
“She was distraught when I spoke to her. ‘I have tuberculosis in my stomach’ she told me and added, ‘I’m going to die very soon. But before going I’m going to expose Shashi for what he’s put me through. I will take him down,” Kanwal quoted her as saying in his statement.
“I was examined as Sunanda had telephoned me on the same day she died,” Singh, who was questioned at Sarojini Nagar police station for nearly 80 minutes on Friday, told reporters. Singh also claimed that Sunanda wanted to talk to her regarding the IPl and quoted her as saying that she had “taken the flak for him (Tharoor) in the IPl (controversy)”.
The IPl controversy had broken out in early 2010 when Tharoor was Minister of State for External Affairs. There were allegations that he had “misused” his office to ensure that Rs70 crore, which was equivalent to 19 per cent equity in IPl Kochi franchise Rendezvous Sports, was paid to Sunanda.
In her statement to the SDM on January 20 last year, Nalini Singh had said that she had spoken to Sunanda a day before her death over phone and that she had expressed her unhappiness over Tharoor’s alleged affair with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. The sources said Singh told the same things to the SIT, which has been questioning journalists who had spoken to Sunanda a day before her death over phone.
They said the SIT will take help of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police to examine the business model of the erstwhile IPl Kochi franchise and to understand the controversy surrounding it. The investigators will also examine whether the IPl controversy had anything to do with Sunanda’s death. Asked about the issue, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said that if needed, the SIT will examine financial transactions of the IPl franchise.
“There are a number of things. It can be background and it can be motive also. If we need to see any financial transaction to understand that, if we need to see the company formation and financial background, then we will look into it,” he said. Bassi also indicated Tharoor can be questioned in this connection again in “some days”.
“Whatever we had spoken to him during the first questioning is being analysed and if we need further questioning, it will be done. Since it is a very involved case, there would be a need to talk to him again, so the SIT will call him again in some days,” he said.
“As I told you, all those people, evidence and things which are relevant in the case will be taken into account. So for this, the SIT has questioned Nalini Singh so that we can get the information from her because in the past she had said a few things before the media,” the police chief added.