The Delhi Police on Wednesday served summons on former Union Minister and Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor to join investigations into Sunanda’s murder case. Sources said the summons was issued under Section 160 of the CrPC by Investigating Officer (IO) Pramod Kushwah, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police South district. However, the sources refused to divulge date for his appearance.
Kushwah is the part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Prem Nath, which has been formed to probe mysterious death of Sunanda after registering a murder case based on medical report.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi on Wednesday said the final medical report from AIIMS warranted filing of the FIR so that viscera samples can be sent abroad for further tests. “When we file a case under Section 302 of the IPC, it means we have prima facie reasons to believe that it is a case of murder,” Bassi said on being asked whether police have any evidence to conclude that it was a case of murder.
When asked about Tharoor’s allegations that the Delhi Police was trying to make his staff confess that he and his domestic help Narayan Singh had murdered Sunanda, Bassi said, “If there is anything of that sort, we will definitely look into it.” “We have formed an SIT to probe the case. The SIT has made an action plan to go about the case and everything will be done as per it,” he said.
Formed under the overall supervision of Joint Commissioner of Police, South-Eastern Range Dr Vivek Gogia, the SIT headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) South district Prem Nath comprises Additional DCP (South) Pramod Kushwah, ACP of Safdarjung Enclave Sub-Division Somendra Pal Tyagi and Station House Officer (SHO) of Sarojini Nagar police station VKPS Yadav.
The Delhi Police had on Tuesday registered a murder case into Sunanda’s death under Section 302 of the IPC on the basis of an AIIMS medical report that concluded that her death was unnatural and due to poisoning, but nobody has been named as a suspect in the FIR as yet.
The investigators have decided to send Sunanda’s viscera samples to a laboratory either in Britain or the United States to identify the poison including whether it could be radioactive isotopes that cannot be detected in Indian labs. Most likely the samples will be sent to the advanced forensics laboratory of Scotland Yard for the final analysis, said a Delhi Police officer involved in the investigations.
Sources said that apart from questioning Shashi Tharoor, the SIT is likely to quiz his relatives and personal staff along with the employees of the five-star hotel where she was found dead on January 17 last year.