The Delhi High Court on Thursday gave the Delhi Police three days to submit a status report on its investigation into Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death. The order came after the bench heard a plea by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy asking for a court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the case, The Indian Express reported.

The court has also asked the Centre for its view on Swamy’s petition, reported NDTV. Swamy has alleged that there has been an “inordinate delay” in the investigation, calling it a “blot” on the judicial system.

Advertisement

“This matter is of national and international interest as the victim was about to disclose alleged corruption in cricket,” Swamy told the bench. “She had also called for a press conference before her death to disclose this.”

To this, the court replied saying, “Neither his [Tharoor’s] party is in power, nor is he a minister any more.”

On July 15, the Delhi police had told the court that they cannot de-seal the room at the Leela Palace hotel where Pushkar died. The police said they had not concluded the case yet and asked for more time to investigate.

The case

Pushkar was found dead in her suite at the Leela Palace 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.

Advertisement

In January 2015, the Delhi Police had registered a case of murder 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.

Tharoor has been questioned in the case a number of times, though he has maintained that he does not suspect that Pushkar did not die of natural causes, and that she had died after overdosing on medication.