Delhi Court seeks police reply on plea to de-seal Sunanda Pushkar's suite

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday sought a response from the city police on de-sealing a suite in a five-star hotel where Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in 2014.

Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma asked the probe agency to respond by July 21 on the hotel's plea which said it was ready to provide all the evidence to the probe agency whenever it needed.

According to the court sources, the counsel representing the hotel told the court that "As the room is locked for last three years, termites, bugs and other pests have spoilt the whole room and even the adjoining areas."

The court had in May issued notice to the Delhi police on hotel's plea seeking de-sealing of the suite number 345.

The hotel claimed that due to the sealing of the suite, which costs between Rs 55,000 and Rs 61,000 a night, the hotel has suffered a loss of over Rs 50 lakh in the last three years.

It claimed that a number of times, police and forensic teams had visited the suite and it was no longer required to be kept sealed.

"The hotel continues to suffer loss with each passing day. The continuous sealing of the suite is also affecting the use of other rooms/suites on the same floor," it said.

The suite was sealed on January 17, 2014 during the investigation into the death of Pushkar. An FIR was registered by Delhi police on January 1, 2015 against unknown persons under the section of 302 (murder).