The day of reckoning of Shashi Tharoor, the lok Sabha Member of Congress from Thiruvananthpuram in Kerala finally came on Monday when he joined the investigation in connection with the murder of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
Tharoor arrived at the C-Block Vasant Vihar office of the Auto-Theft Squad (ATS) of South District for questioning. He was questioned by the SIT headed by South Delhi DCP Prem Nath, Additional DCP Pramod Kushwah and South-Eastern range Joint CP Dr Vivek, for several hours.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi had hinted that the questioning of Tharoor was imminent as he has already been served summons under Section 160 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) by the Investigating Officer (IO). Tharoor’s questioning was necessitated as there were several unanswered questions in the murder mystery.
Sources said that Tharoor was confronted in the light of fresh details that had emerged in the SIT probe after it registered a case of murder at Sarojini Nagar police station. The SIT also asked him about his relationship with Sunanda and whether there were differences between them over Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar and his biographer Katherine who their servant Narayan Singh had mentioned as ‘Katy’ during his depositionIJ
Sources told The Pioneer that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Delhi Police was ready with its questionnaire to confront Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Kerala in connection with the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. Delhi Police Chief also confirmed that all those in any way concerned with the case would be questioned. When specifically asked whether Delhi Police intended to question former Union Minister Minister Manish Tewari who was travelling on the same flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi on January 15 on which Tharoor and Sunanda had a bitter spat can also be questioned in the case, Bassi did not rule out the possibility.
Meanwhile well-placed sources said on Monday that the SIT is all set to summon the an eminent woman journalist with whom Sunanda had spoken to before her death and Tharoor’s private secretary Abhinav Kumar, an IPS officer who had informed the then SHO of Sarojini Nagar police station about the death.
This woman journalist had already deposed before the police but has expressed her willingness to join the probe as and when required by the investigators. “See, I would like to tell you that everybody who has information in this case, we will talk to them and look at specifics, which throw light. Sharing details will not be possible,” Bassi said in response to the query.
SIT has already questioned Narayan Singh, the domestic help of Tharoor, his family friend Sanjay Dewan, the hotel doctor who pronounced her dead and hotel’s staff, including its manager.
The SIT had also taken the custody of the CCTV footage of the hotel to ascertain the entry of the people who also went towards the suite no. 345 where Sunanda was staying.
When reporters asked Bassi about BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s tweet alleging that Tharoor wrote to an investigating officer (IO) in the case in December, the police chief saw nothing wrong with it, saying anybody can write a letter to them.
Fifty two-year-old Sunanda Pushkar was discovered dead in her suite at leela Kempinski in Chanakyapuri area in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after she was reportedly involved in a verbal spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor.
SIT is in the process of sending her viscera samples for the advanced forensics either to the US or the UK to determine the nature and quantity of the poison, which caused her death, according to police.
The Police Commissioner said that the legalities involved in sending the viscera samples for further tests to a foreign lab were being finalised and the same would be sent once the process is complete.