Sunanda Pushkar death: Police say hotel room cannot be de-sealed as investigation is still under way

The Delhi Police on Friday said they cannot de-seal the room at the Leela Palace hotel, where former Congress minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead, reported The Indian Express. The statement came in response to the hotel administration’s plea in the court, seeking permission to open room number 345.

The police said they had not concluded the case yet and asked for more time to investigate, according to the Hindustan Times. They said they have yet to deduce how Pushkar’s alleged murder took place.

Pushkar’s body was found in the hotel room on January 17, 2014. So far, experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory have visited the room twice, and medical boards have submitted five reports.

The hotel’s administration claimed that keeping the suite sealed for more than three years had cost them Rs 50 lakh in losses. According to the plea, there are 17 suites in the hotel where the cost for a night’s stay ranges from Rs 55,000 to Rs 61,000.

The court had sought a damage report from the hotel, reported ANI. Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma asked the investigating officer to file a reply by July 21.

The case

Pushkar’s death has been shrouded in mystery. She was found dead inside her suite at the five-star hotel in New Delhi on January 17, 2014. A Special Investigation Team of the Delhi Police is looking into what was earlier believed to have been a suicide.

In January 2015, the Delhi Police had registered a murder case after a board at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences had concluded that she had died of poisoning. The panel had later found that Pushkar had overdosed on an anti-anxiety drug.

This report reaffirmed the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s conclusion that Pushkar had not died of poisoning from polonium or any other radioactive substance. A third medical panel has been unable to determine the substance that led to Pushkar’s death.

Tharoor has been questioned in the case a number of times, though he has maintained that he does not suspect foul play in his wife’s death, and that she had died after overdosing on medication.