Court pulls Delhi Police for delaying de-sealing room where Pushkar died

A court here on Saturday pulled up Delhi Police for the delay in de-sealing of Room 345 of Hotel Leela Palace where former union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in January 2014.

Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh asked police why it has taken two months time to inform the hotel that probe agency will need more time for investigation.

Police told the court that a team of expert from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) will visit the hotel on September 1 to collect evidence in the case, and the hotel was informed about this on Friday.

Pulling up police for the delay, the court asked them to file a report on September 4.

On July 21m the court ordered the de-sealing of Room 345, which has remained locked since January 17, 2014, saying that the hotel can not be made to suffer continuously merely because the investigating team can not ascertain the cause of death.

The hotel had told the court that as the room has been locked for over three years, termites, bugs and other pests have spoiled the whole room and even the adjoining areas.

It also said that they would allow the investigators to take whatever things they want as evidence from the room, even as it noted that no investigating agency had visited it for the past one year and keeping the room closed for three years had caused it great financial loss.

--IANS

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