Court orders de-sealing of suite in which Sunanda Pushkar died

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today ordered de- sealing of a suite in a five-star hotel where Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in 2014 under mysterious circumstances.

Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma passed the order on a plea by the hotel to de-seal suite number 345.

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

It has 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 a 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 has said.

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