A Delhi court will take up for consideration a plea filed by police to conduct polygraph test on three “suspects” in Sunanda Pushkar murder case.
The Delhi Police submitted before Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma that Shashi Tharoor’s domestic help Narain Singh, driver Bajrangi and friend Sanjay Dewan were concealing material facts about Sunanda’s mysterious death on January 17, 2014, hence they should be subjected to polygraph test.
Citing specific instances to claim that they are lying, the police told the court that the three were Tharoor’s close associates and were in present at Hotel Leela Palace just before Sunanda’s death.
“During investigation, it has been found that the three persons are concealing material facts and did not disclose several issues related to the death of Sunanda Pushkar,” the plea filed by SHO of Sarojini Nagar Police Station said.
It said that on January 17, Tharoor’s close friend Sanjay Dewan came to the hotel at 5 pm and remained there till the discovery of Pushkar’s death. He could not give plausible reason for cancelling his trip to Mumbai and his coming to the hotel in Delhi, it said.
Among the other points raised by the police was his silence about a power cut in Room No 345 just before the discovery of Sunanda’s death and, despite being there, they failed to explain the injury marks on Sunanda’s body.
The police claimed he did not wake up Pushkar for two and a half hours and also not explained why he preferred Dr Rajan Mohan, who came all the way from Patel Nagar, over the hotel doctor who could come within a short span of time.
It alleged that Dewan did not give proper explanation for sending driver Bajrangi to bring Dr Mohan even without meeting Pushkar in her room.
Police said that Dewan did not produce his cell phone which was required to retrieve the text messages exchanged between him and Tharoor as per the call details. “It shows that he is hiding the material facts related to this case,” it said.
Regarding suspect Narain, the police said he had cited repair work at Tharoor’s official residence – 97 Lodhi Estate – as the reason for Pushkar’s stay at the hotel but investigations later proved that the repair work was over before January 15, the day Sunanda arrived in Delhi from Thiruvananthapuram. The police alleged that Narain tried to mislead the investigation.
The police are also doubtful about his silence on Sunanda’s spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar and also about Sunanda’s threat to hold a press conference on January 17, 2014 to “expose” Shashi Tharoor.
The police also alleged that driver Bajrangi was well aware of the facts of the case.
“He (Bajrangi) did not disclose about the injury marks present on the body of deceased Sunanda Puskhar. He also did not disclose about relation of Shashi Tharoor with Pak journalist Mehr Tarar which was an apple of discord between the couple,” the police said.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the case. Sunanda’s husband and former UPA minister Shashi Tharoor has been questioned thrice in this case so far. In January this year, the SIT has claimed that Sunanda Pushkar was poisoned, and registered a murder case against unknown persons.
52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in her suite at a five star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after she was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on microblogging website Twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor.
