NEW DELHI: Forensic experts will re-visit the room of five star hotel Leela Palace where Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was found dead in 2014. The team will visit the room on 1st September.
Information about the proposed visit of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team was disclosed to the court by hotel management which has sought de-sealing of the suite where Pushkar died under mysterious circumstances. The hotel had claimed that by sealing the suite, which costs between Rs 55,000 and Rs 61,000 a night, it had incurred a loss of over Rs 50 lakh since 2014.
The court also pulled up the Delhi police for delay in de-sealing the suite while referring to an order passed on July 21 by its predecessor asking it to de-seal the occupied premises within four weeks.
The advocate, appearing for the hotel, said it had received a letter on Friday from the Delhi police saying that the CFSL team would visit the suite again on September 1. “Why did you take two months to inform the hotel that you will need more time,” the court asked. It, however, allowed their plea seeking one more chance to file the compliance report regarding de-sealing the suite. The court directed the agency to file the report on September 4.
The court noted that no offence was found on part of the hotel and no police official had visited the suite for over a year. Delhi Police had said in its earlier status report that it had reached no definitive conclusion regarding the cause of death.
The hotel had submitted before the court that locking the suite was creating sanitary and cleanliness issues. It claimed that police and forensic teams had visited the suite a number of times and it was no longer required to be 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.
Pushkar was found dead in the South Delhi hotel suite on the night of January 17, 2014. It was sealed the same night for investigation.