Sunanda death case: Tharoor appears before SIT again

New Delhi, Feb 13: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday appeared for the third time in two days before the Special Investigation Team(SIT) that is probing his wife Sunanda's mysterious death.

Tharoor visited Sarojini Nagar Police Station informing the SIT that he was leaving for Thiruananthapuram later in the day.

Police sources said that the SIT has asked Tharoor to keep them informed about his movements and contact details so that the team can get in touch with him whenever they need him during investigation. However, police has not put any restrictions on his movement as of now.

The former Union Minister reached the police station around 1 PM and spent about half-an-hour. Although he was not formally questioned during the visit, but police did ask him some supplementary questions regards what he had told them yesterday during two rounds of questioning that lasted nearly seven hours.

Meanwhile, sources also said that a team from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police is in Mumbai to look into the business model of defunct IPL Kochi franchise and see whether there was anything fishy in its financial transactions.

The team is also likely to meet BCCI officials in this regard. Yesterday's questioning of Tharoor was mainly focused on the IPL controversy which had broken out in early 2010 when he was minister of state for external affairs.

There were allegations that he had "misused" his office to ensure that Rs 70 crore, which was equivalent to 19 per cent equity in IPL Kochi franchise Rendezvous Sports, was paid to Sunanda, a charge denied by him. Tharoor was yesterday quizzed for nearly seven hours, spread over two rounds including for two hours late in the night during which he faced tough questions mainly on IPL controversy.

The questioning of Tharoor by a five-member SIT team took place at the Anti Auto Theft Squad (AATS) office in Vasant Vihar in South Delhi. Delhi Police had earlier examined the former Union minister on January 19.

Another round of questioning of Tharoor may take place over the weekend, police sources said yesterday.

Tharoor's interrogation came on a day when Sunanda's viscera sample was sent to a FBI laboratory in the US for further probe.

Tharoor's domestic help Bajrangi and Narayan Singh, his common friend Sanjay Dewan, his PS Praveen Kumar and Rajat Mohan (cardiologist of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital) were questioned along with him earlier in the day.

Besides, they were also separately quizzed. 52-year-old Sunanda was found dead in her suite at a five star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after she was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on microblogging website Twitter over the latter's alleged affair with Tharoor.

Police had last month filed a murder case and formed an SIT to probe the case.

PTI