A Delhi Police Inspector, who was the investigating officer (IO) of the highly sensational Sunanda Pushkar case during the initial stages, is being drafted into the Special Investigation Team (SIT). A formal order is being issued in this regard.
The SIT is preparing a report on the status of the probe and submit it to senior officers. There has been lot of changing and chopping in the SIT as many officers were transferred to other units and the investigation was handed over to new set of officers.
Three Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) were changed since January 17, 2014, the day Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of then Union Minister Shashi Tharoor was found murdered in a suite in leela Kempinsky hotel in Chanakyapuri area. It was BS Jaiswal who the DCP of South district when the murder took place but after some time, he was transferred to Traffic Police as the DCP of Southern range. His place was taken by Prem Nath who supervised the probe and even went to the United States to receive the report of the viscera samples from the forensic laboratory of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After Prem Nath's transfer to Arunachal Pradesh Ishwar Singh took over as DCP South and has been overseeing the ongoing the probe.
Recently the Delhi Police wrote to Canada's Department of Justice to retrieve the chats that were deleted from the mobile phone of Sunanda Pushkar. It may be pertinent to mention here that Sunanda's person mobile phone handset that was found lying near her body was reportedly handed over to her husband Shashi Tharoor the sitting lok Sabaha member of Congress from Thiruvanantpuram seat.
When asked about the re-induction of the Inspector level official who had handled the probe initially, a senior police official said that a recommendation has been made and an order in this regard is expected soon after the Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Verma returns from Hyderbad.
Delhi Police have been sending reminders to Canada's Department of Justice seeking details of the deleted chats from mobile phones of Pushkar and her husband, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, and a team is likely to be sent there.
last month, the city police had written to Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the financial irregularities related to the now-defunct Kochi IPl franchise as part of its ongoing investigation into the murder case.
The matter was being handled by the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing which was handed the probe during the tenure of former Police Commissioner B S Bassi, but in a letter written to ED, the Delhi Police had asked it to probe the matter.
In September, Sunanda's viscera samples were brought back from a FBI lab in the US by the members of a Delhi Police team probing the high profile case.
The Delhi Police had also asked the FBI lab to submit its final list of observations so that they can be produced before of a medical board, which is likely to be formed soon.
It may be recalled that 51 year old Sunanda Pushkar was found dead at a suite at leela Kempinsky hotel on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after her spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over her alleged affair with Tharoor.
Several persons, including Tharoor have been questioned in connection with her death.
Police have also conducted polygraph test on six persons, 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, her fight with Sunanda over Twitter, and other issues revolving around Sunanda's death.