Sunanda Pushkar death: Delhi cops call it murder, Shashi Tharoor to be quizzed

In a sensational twist to the death of Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar, Delhi Police on Tuesday registered a murder case on the basis of a medical report that concluded her death was unnatural and due to poisoning but nobody has been named as suspect as yet. “She died due to poisoning. Whether the poison was given orally or injected into her body is being investigated,” Delhi Police Chief BS Bassi told media on Tuesday afternoon. Although at the same time, Bassi did not rule out questioning Shashi Tharoor, now a Congress MP and a former Union Minister. According to the Police Commissioner’s statement, it is not yet clear whether she had consumed the poison on her own or was it administered to her forcefully or by injection. Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead in her New Delhi hotel room on 17 January 2014, in what was first believed to be a case of drug overdose. Since then, the case was reopened and a team of AIIMS doctors had submitted a fresh report to the police after examining her viscera and maintained that she died of poisoning. “Stunned” by the Delhi Police action, Tharoor, who had married Sunanda in 2010, sought full details from the investigators on the basis of which the police action came. “I am stunned to hear that the Delhi Police have filed a case of murder against unknown persons in the demise of my late wife Sunanda. Needless to say I am anxious to see this case is investigated thoroughly and continue to assure the police of my full co-operation,” Tharoor said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_1346221” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Sunanda Pushkar. Courtesy: IBNLive[/caption] While Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said registration of a case one year after the death raises question marks and suspicions. “It is a legal process. Every case need not be sensationalised,” he said. BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao said the registration of a murder case has ended the confusion and hoped that the investigation will be concluded soon and the guilty prosecuted. Sunanda’s death had created a sensation as it came hot on the heels of a bitter spat between the couple over the twitter over his alleged affair with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. “On 29th December, the medical board of AIIMS has given us a report. The main thing they have informed us is that the death is unnatural and not natural. Secondly, it is due to poison that could have been taken orally or injected and they have told us other things as well,” Bassi said. He said since tests to find out the quantum and nature of the poison cannot take place in India, the police have decided to send samples abroad for examination. The report also did not mention the kind or nature of the poison while mentioning a list of possible chemicals which could not be detected in Indian labs. Sources said Polonium 210, a radioactive isotope is suspected to be the poison that may have caused her death. “The viscera samples may now be sent to an FBI lab in the US or lab in UK,” said a senior police official. Earlier medical reports had mentioned 12 injury marks on Sunanda’s body including an injection mark on her hand and a tooth bite. Doctors from the medical board had visited the crime spot (suite of the five-star hotel) in the first week of November along with police officials where they examined the room and lifted samples. After analyzing it, they have submitted the third and final report in the case on 29 December. “The medical board had maintained that the death was unnatural and due to poisoning. However, it has clearly listed a number of poisons, most of which are radioactive chemicals which cannot be detected during forensic tests in Indian labs including thallium, polonium 210, nerium oleander, snake venom, photolabile poisons and heroin,” the sources said. A Special Team which has been formed to probe the case will investigate the case from scratch. The team is likely to question Tharoor, his relatives and personal staff along with the employees of the five-star hotel where she was found dead on January 17 last year, the sources said. Asked whether Tharoor would be questioned in the light of the latest development, Bassi said, “Now, as we have registered a case of murder, all those people who were connected with the case will be examined.” “All the witnesses in this case were examined by the SDM, as he conducted inquest proceedings. So, all relevant witnesses were examined by him, we had also examined them under Section 174 of the CrPC. “Now as we have registered a case of murder, all those people connected with the case will be examined,” he said. Bassi said the AIIMS report has not specified the nature of the poison and how it was administered into her body. The substance is still not clear but the death is due to poisoning, he said. Asked why a case was being registered one year after the incident, he said the medical report which the police got initially was “interim”. The doctors needed certain information which was gathered and given to them, he said, noting after that they demanded some more information. “Now they (doctors) have given us some conclusions on the basis of available information. So on the basis of that report it was necessary to file a case and proceed further in the probe,” Bassi said. The report has not given definitive conclusion about how poison was present in the body but it has suggested more possibility of injection having been administered, he said. Bassi said investigators did not take long to file the case as a proper investigation was required which “we did”. “There are so many things in investigation. But I cannot reveal anything before I reach some conclusion,” he said. Meanwhile, Headlines Today quoted sources and said that two men entered Sunanda’s room the day she was killed and “allegedly cleaned up the room to destroy evidence against the killers. The hotel room where she was found dead was revisited by police and forensic experts recently. The suite had remained sealed and was opened for the first time since the incident for the visit.” Reactions flooded TV channels. Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said speculations should be set aside since it wasn’t a political issue. “It would be a dangerous thing to accuse everyone, we first need to establish who murdered Sunanda,” Chowdhury said. Sunanda’s brother, Ashish Dass seemed distraught. “I am totally shocked. We were not expecting this at all. The whole family is devastated. We want the police to go into detail and find out the truth. I never thought it could be this serious a thing. We want the police to get to the bottom of this.” A cousin of Sunanda, Ashok Kumar said the family always knew that it was a murder case. “This decision (taken by the police) was delayed. We had said from the beginning that this was a murder case. We want punishment to be given to the people involved in this murder. We want Tharoor to be interrogated. Without Tharoor’s involvement, this murder couldn’t have taken place. We are satisfied that the investigation is going in the right direction.” Meanwhile, political potshots continued as more details started surfacing and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy did not miss an opportunity. Speaking to ANI, he said: “The only crime Sunanda committed was that she wanted to tell the truth. I found a conspiracy for silence in this case. The people involved were very powerful people. This is a very big murder. Very big names are involved. Even the hotel has to be investigated. But it is not an ordinary murder of passion. It was a murder involving money, a murder that would’ve hurt the reputation of people in high-profile places. This murder was carried out by gangsters from foreign countries. It’s a national security issue. I want to establish a principle. There is a right to life…” (With Agency Inputs)