Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar may soon be questioned in connection with the mysterious death of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar as Delhi Police widens ambit of its investigation in the high-profile case.
Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said Tarar was a “relevant link” in the case and the Special Investigating Team probing Sunanda’s death may question her soon.
A day before she was found dead in a luxury hotel here in January last year, Sunanada had a spat with Tarar on microblogging website Twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor.
“If necessary, we will question her. We will try and get in touch with her because she is a relevant person who can throw some light into the case,” Bassi said when asked whether the investigators will examine her.
Sources in the police said that a formal request is likely to be sent to her through “official channels” asking her to join the investigations.
On her part, Tarar said she was ready to answer questions if it would help the police piece together the sequence of events.
“Every second somebody calls me, somebody tweets for me, somebody shares something for me. I hope it comes to an end. I am ready to answer but I cannot answer what they want me to answer.
“If they think there is anything that could help them to piece together the sequence of events, I would of course answer their questions,” she said.
Bassi said investigators have also asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US to complete examination of Sunanda’s viscera as soon as possible.
A senior police official had gone to the US last month to give the sample of Sunanda’s viscera to the FBI. Tharoor was questioned by the investigators for three times last month.
The investigators had sent Sunanda’s viscera to the FBI lab in the US as they want to confirm the kind of poison which was found in Sunanda’s body by a panel of doctors of AIIMS.
The AIIMS report could not find out the nature of the poison in her body.
“We had told them (FBI) to do it as early as possible. They follow certain procedures and processes. So it may take some time,” Bassi said.
52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in her suite at a five star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17 last year.
Tharoor’s questioning last month was focused on the IPL controversy, which broke in early 2010 when he was minister of state for external affairs.
There were allegations that he “misused” his office to ensure that Rs 70 crore, equivalent to a 19 per cent stake in IPL Kochi franchise Rendezvous Sports, was paid to Sunanda, a charge denied by him.
Tharoor had submitted to the SIT last month some computer data–which included emails and other information in digital form–pertaining to the communication he had with various individuals and authorities before and after the mysterious death of Sunanda.
Bassi said, if required, Tharoor will “definitely” be called for questioning again.
The Police Commissioner said the investigators were waiting for the forensic report of certain gadgets that were seized by them in connection with the case.
