In its bid to crack the riddle of sensational Sunanda Tharoor Pushkar’s murder in a five-star hotel in the national Capital, the Delhi Police has written to Canada’s Department of Justice seeking details of the deleted chats from the mobile phones of Sunanda and her husband Shashi Tharoor.
The Delhi Police has sent a letters Rogatory to the department asking them to get details of chat messages from Research in Motion ltd, a senior police officer said. It would be pertinent to mention here that Sunanda’s mobile phone was allegedly handed over to her husband Congress leader Shashi Tharoor by a senior Delhi Police officer. Officers involved in the investigations said the personal mobile phone could have led police in solving the matrix behind her murder. The fact that vital data from the handset was deleted has made the task more tough for the investigating officer (IO).
Senior journalist Nalini Singh had told police that she had a chat with Sunanda in which she had mentioned that Tharoor and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar had allegedly exchanged messages that were deleted from Tharoor’s phone. Sources in the Delhi Police said initial probe was mishandled and that allowed those behind it managed to erase their imprints.
It may be recalled that 51-year-old Sunanda was found dead at a suite in a five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after her spat with Tarar on Twitter over her alleged affair with Tharoor.
Several people, including Tharoor, have been questioned in connection with Sunanda’s death. Police have also conducted polygraph test on six people, all prime witnesses in the case, including Tharoor’s domestic help Narayan Singh, driver Bajrangi and Sanjay Dewan, a close friend of the couple.
In February, Tarar was questioned about her relation with the Congress leader and his wife in a five start hotel in New Delhi. She was asked several questions on her reported fight with Sunanda over Twitter, and other issues revolving around Sunanda’s death.
The Delhi Police had in January 2015 registered a case of murder in connection with Sunanda’s death.
The FBI report sent to the Delhi Police in November 2015 had virtually ruled out the theory of ‘polonium poisoning’ having caused her death.
However, after the Delhi Police failed to draw any conclusion on basis of the findings, the report was handed over to a medical board for examination before further proceedings in the high-profile case. The medical board is yet to give its opinion on cause of Sunanda’s death.