Who killed socialite Sunanda Pushkar? Investigators knew right from the beginning that it was not a case of suicide, exposes a secret police report accessed exclusively by DNA. But the case has remained a mystery, more than four years on.
Her body had been found in her suite (number 345) of Delhi’s five-star Hotel Leela Palace on January 17, 2014.
The Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Vasant Vihar, Alok Sharma, who inspected the scene of crime and conducted inquest proceedings, was of the view that it was not a suicide, clearly says a report prepared by then Deputy Commissioner of Police BS Jaiswal.
Not satisfied with the inquest proceedings, the SDM had ordered the Sarojini Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) to investigate the case as that of murder, says the report.
The decision was made based on the autopsy report that said: "The cause of death to the best of my knowledge and belief in this case is poisoning. The circumstantial evidence suggests to alprazolam poisoning.”
“All injuries mentioned are caused by blunt force, simple in nature, non-contributing to death and are produced in scuffle, except injury number 10 with an injection mark. Injury number 12 is teeth bite mark. The injuries (1 to 15) are of various durations ranging from 12 hours to 4 days.”
The report says that the injection marks were fresh. It also says the body had various scuffle marks. “These seem to have been caused due to scuffle between Sunanda Pushkar and her husband Shashi Tharoor as per the statement of their personal attendant Narain Singh,” says the report which was submitted to then Southern Delhi Range Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia, who had been told to personally monitor the case. The report was further submitted to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
Even after the cause of the death was found, the police did not proceed accordingly. The case was transferred to the crime branch after a week, and it was decided that an FIR of murder would be filed. But the case went back within four hours.
The crime branch had also visited that crime scene. The decision of then Commissioner of Police BS Bassi led to delay in the registration of an FIR in the case for a year and investigations were delayed for almost two years, said sources.
The secret report has multiple annexures on post-mortem, chemical, biological and fingerprints reports — each pointing towards murder, but the police did not act accordingly.
The report questioned the teeth bite and injection marks on Pushkar. “Whether poison was given orally or was injected is a matter to be probed,” the report says.
Earlier, she had been given room number 307, but she was later moved to room number 345.
Also, the crime branch sleuths and journalist Nalini Singh had said that Pushkar wanted to do a presser. At 3 pm, she had asked her assistant to take out her white dress for the purpose. The next development was her death.
"The death was mysterious and everything pointed towards murder from day one," said a senior police officer who was then investigating the case.
