Cops seek lie-detector test of witnesses

Delhi Police’s plea to conduct polygraph tests on three key witness-turned-suspects in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case for alleged hiding of material facts by them would come up for consideration in a city court on May 20, police said on Friday.

The three key witness-turned-suspects are Sanjay Dewan, Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar’s mutual friend,  their driver Bajrangi and domestic help Narain Singh. All of them were reportedly present at Hotel Leela Palace in south Delhi just before Pushkar’s death on January 17, 2014. Also, the police may further seek similar screening of around a dozen witnesses in the case.

However, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi refused to ‘speculate’ in the matter when asked whether the police would also conduct a polygraph test on Tharoor. Bassi also informed that the police is yet to receive FBI’s report regarding he kind of poison which caused Sunanda Pushkar’s death.

The plea filed by the Station House Officer of Sarojini Nagar police station at the Patiala House Court on May 14 says that all the three ‘suspects’ – Dewan, Bajrangi and Narain – did not mention about a power cut that took place in Pushkar’s room (Room no. 345) around 7 pm on January 17, despite being present there.

Regarding Dewan, the police claimed, that he came to the hotel at 5 pm and remained there till the discovery of Pushkar’s death. He could also not give any plausible reason for cancelling his trip to Mumbai and his coming to the hotel in Delhi instead. He also did not wake up Pushkar for two and a half hours and kept waiting in the room. Dewan also did not explain why he preferred Dr Rajan Mohan, who came all the way from Patel Nagar, over the in-house doctor in the hotel who could come within a short span of time.

The police also alleged that Dewan did not give <g data-gr-id="36">proper</g> explanation for sending driver Bajrangi to bring Dr Mohan even without meeting Pushkar in her room. Police said that Dewan did not produce his cell phone which was required to retrieve the text messages exchanged between him and Tharoor as per the call details.

Regarding suspect Narain, police claimed it was found that he had accompanied the Tharoor couple from KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, and remained with Pushkar in the hotel from January 15-17, 2014 till her death and that he was very well-acquainted with the facts relating to her death.

The police also said a mobile phone was recovered from Narain on February 5, 2015. Later it emerged that the same phone was used by Shashi Tharoor between January 8, 2014 and January 15, 2014. When asked, Narain said that the phone belonged to Tharoor.