NEW DELHI, May 15:
Delhi Police’s plea to conduct polygraph test on three “suspects” in Sunanda Pushkar murder case on grounds that they were hiding some material facts, would come up for consideration before a city court next Wednesday.
The police filed its application before Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma who fixed it for consideration on May 20.
In the plea, police has urged the court to initiate proceedings of polygraph test on Shashi Tharoor’s domestic help Narain Singh, driver Bajrangi and friend Sanjay Dewan, saying they were hiding material facts relating to the case.
During investigations, several persons including Narain, Bajrangi and Dewan were examined as they were closely associated with Tharoor and Pushkar, and were also present at Hotel Leela Palace here just before her 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.
“He remained silent about the power cut on January 17, 2014 at about 7 pm in room no. 345 at Leela Hotel just before the discovery of the death of Sunanda Pushkar, while he was very much present in the room along with Shashi Tharoor,” the application said, adding that he did not properly reply to questions regarding the injuries on Pushkar’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, police claimed it was found that he had accompanied the Tharoor couple from KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, and remained with Pushkar in the hotel from January 15-17, 2014 till her death and that he was very well-acquainted with the facts relating to her death.
“But he did not disclose how the injury marks had taken place on her body and relations between Tharoor and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar which was a bone of discord between the couple”, the plea said.
It added that Narain had cited the reason for Pushkar’s stay in the hotel to be the ongoing repair work at their residence in Lodhi Estate but it was found that the work was over before her arrival in Delhi on January 15, 2014, and alleged that he had tried to “mislead” the investigation.
The police further said that Narain remained silent on the “issue” on which Pushkar wanted to “expose” Tharoor in a press conference which was to be held on January 17, 2014.
It also said the mobile phone recovered from Narain belonged to Tharoor and could not explain the reason behind keeping the mobile phone.
The police mentioned similar reasons with regard to Bajrangi and said he was present in the hotel on January 16-17, 2014 and was acquainted with 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,” it said.
Tharoor has been questioned thrice in this case so far. Pushkar was found dead in the hotel suite on January 17 last year, days after a public twitter spat where she accused her husband of having an affair with the Pakistani journalist.
In the first week of January this year, police claimed that Sunanda Pushkar (51) was poisoned, and registered a murder case against unknown persons.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed to probe the case, is learnt to be looking into a possible link with the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League. (PTI)
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