New Delhi: The murder case of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Kerala Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, took a murky turn on Thursday as Delhi Police said it wants to conduct polygraph test on three of the witnesses, saying they are lying.
Calling Narain Singh (domestic help), Bajrangi (driver) and Shashi Tharoor’s friend Sanjay Dewan ‘suspects’ in the case, police have told a Delhi court that ‘it has been found that all three are concealing material facts and didn’t disclose several issues related to the death of Sunanda Pushkar’.
The cops claim all three are ‘very well acquainted with the facts related to Sunanda’s death’.
For instance, police claim the suspects remained silent about a power cut on January 17, 2014 around 7pm “in room no. 345 at Leela Hotel just before the discovery of the death of Sunanda Pushkar, while they were very much present in the room along with Shashi Tharoor”.
Metropolitan magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma on Thursday issued summons to the three men saying “all the three suspects to be present in court on May 20”.
In an application moved in a Patiala House court, police have given detailed report of their investigation till now and cited specific areas where they suspect the three men to be lying, justifying the need for a polygraph test. “All three are closely associated with Shashi Tharoor and deceased Sunanda Pushkar and were present in Hotel Leela Palace just before her death,” the plea said.
Accusing the men of hiding material facts, police say the suspects, despite being at the venue, failed to explain how Sunanda received injury marks on her body. Similarly, none of them told police of “relation of Shashi Tharoor with Pak journalist Mehr Tarar, which was a bone of discord between the couple”.
The application filed by SHO Sarojini Nagar says preliminary investigations reveal that repair work at Shashi Tharoor’s 97 Lodhi Estate home was over before Sunanda arrived in Delhi on January 15. But during questioning, the three suspects maintained that the reason for her stay in the hotel was the ongoing repair work at the official residence. Police say with their statements, the three “tried to mislead the investigation”.
Yet another reason cited by the SHO to demand the suspects face polygraph test is that they remained silent about Sunanda’s plan to “expose Shashi in her press conference”, which was to be held on January 17, 2014.
In their plea in court, police refer to specific role of Dewan, saying first he failed to give a “plausible” reason why he cancelled his trip to Mumbai and came to Leela hotel on January 17. “He has also not disclosed why he didn’t wake up Sunanda Pushkar while he was sitting in the room no. 345 (ante room) for about two-and-a-half hours,” police said in their application.
Deewan is a suspect also because he couldn’t explain why he preferred Dr Rajat Mohan from Patel Nagar to the in-house doctor of Leela Hotel who could come in at short notice. “He also didn’t give a proper explanation for sending driver Bajrangi to bring Dr Rajat Mohan even without meeting Sunanda in the room,” the cops said.
Lastly, police allege Dewan is hiding material facts related to the case because he didn’t produce his mobile phone used during that period.
“As per call details there are several text messages exchanged between him and Shashi Tharoor and to retrieve the texts the same phone is required,” the investigating officer says while seeking polygraph.
Â