Sunanda Pushkar’s body was moved from one room to another at Delhi hotel: report

New Delhi: A TV news channel on Monday claimed that former Union minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar body was moved from one place to another at Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi.

After airing 19 telephonic conversation between a correspondent and a close aide of Mr Tharoor, who was present at the hotel, Republic TV said that the Congress leader had re-visited the hotel after leaving it at 6.30 am, which he had “concealed” before investigating agencies.

The channel claimed that Sunanda’s body was moved from room No. 307 to 345 of Leela, alleging that the death scene and body was tampered with before investigation.

Delhi police chief Amulya Patna said investigation is on the case. He declined to comment further. The channel claimed that Pushkar’s clothes were removed from the hotel and she was allegedly prevented from speaking with the media.

Quoting the aide, the channel claimed there was some argument between the couple, which went on till the wee hours of the day she died.

The aide was quoted as saying that Pushkar had gone to sleep at 6.30 am.

On January 17, 2014, Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Mr Tharoor, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at Leela Palace in New Delhi, a day after she had a spat on Twitter with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar.

On January 16, Pushkar had tweeted some material which hinted to a possible romantic liaison between Mr Tharoor and Ms Tarar.

The tweets in question were said to be Blackberry Messenger messages that Ms Tarar had sent to Mr Tharoor.

The autopsy report at that time had hinted that she had died of an overdose of sleeping pills. However, the report was inconclusive as to how she died and whether it was a suicide.

During investigation, Pushkar’s viscera samples were sent to AIIMS. It was only after they failed to detect any poisonous substance that the samples were handed over to the FBI in Washington.