Sunanda Pushkar murder probe leaves many loose ends

NEW DELHI: The investigation into the Sunanda Pushkar case has left many answered questions. According to police sources, while the investigators had tried to tie up most of the loose ends before filing the FIR on January 1, 2015, there are many loopholes that are yet to be plugged.

The foremost question pertains to the source of the Alprax strips found in Sunanda's suite. It is now evident that the Alprax strips were planted there to mislead the police. A senior police officer told TOI that the chemist and the area from where the medicine was procured can be traced on the basis of the batch number mentioned on the strips.

This is the standard operating procedure which the police follow to ascertain the source of medicines in fake drug cases.

The next question is whether the police have verified the persons who frequented the Leela hotel on the day of incident or the previous night.

The hotel clarified that no CCTVs were out of order on January 17. They said they have submitted footage of close to 200 cameras installed on the premises, including that of the 10 cameras installed on the floor where the incident took place.

Another unanswered question is whether police have found anything suspicious on the list of fliers who flew in and out of Delhi around January 17 as this will be imperative in tracking down the person who may have carried the poison with him to Delhi.

Police will now go for an analysis of call detail records of Tharoor, his secretary Abhinav and help Narain to ascertain the identity of people they were in touch with before Sunanda's murder.