Police to bring back Sunanda Pushkar's viscera samples from US

NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police team probing the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, is in the US to collect her viscera samples that have been lying with an FBI lab for nearly a year now.

The team is likely to return by the end of the week. The US agency has already given its report which will be discussed with a medical board, a senior police officer said.

It is just a routine exercise to bring back the samples lying with the FBI lab. The team will also seek details on some points mentioned in the US probe agency's lab report, he said.

The step was taken after the Ministry of Home Affairs in a letter reminded Delhi Police to get the samples back as was asked by the FBI lab.

51-year-old Sunanda was found dead at a suite in a five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after her spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over her alleged affair with Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

Delhi Police had in January last year registered a case of murder in connection with Sunanda's death. An AIIMS medical board had earlier found poisoning as reason for her death following which the police had sent her viscera samples to the FBI lab in the US.

The FBI lab report, sent to Delhi Police in November last year, endorsed the findings of the AIIMS forensic report. As police could not firm up about cause of the death based on the FBI report, they requested a medical board of AIIMS to analyse its content.

Several persons including Shashi Tharoor have been questioned in connection with Sunanda's death. The police have also conducted polygraph test on six persons, all prime witnesses in the case, including Tharoor's domestic help Narayan Singh, driver Bajrangi and Sanjay Dewan, a close friend of the couple.

In February, Tarar was questioned about her relation with the Congress leader and his wife, her fight with Sunanda over Twitter, and other issues revolving around Sunanda's death.