New Delhi

Shashi Tharoor was intensely questioned tonight over four hours by a special team of Delhi Police on the circumstances leading to the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar a year back and her spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over her links with the Congress MP.

Tharoor’s questioning, which started around 8 PM, was continuing late in the night.

Sources said that the former union minister was asked about the 15 injuries on her body, especially injury number ten which was an injection mark as the medical report has indicated that the poison which caused her death could have either been taken orally or injected.

He was also asked about the reason of the tiff the couple had on the flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi on January 15 following which she left him at the airport and checked in at Leela Hotel.

Tharoor was asked whether Sunanda was suffering from any disease and the kind of medication she was taking. He was quizzed about the empty Alprax tablets which were found in the hotel room and who used to consume it as the viscera tests were found negative for it.

He was queried whether she was suffering from Lupus (a kind of skin disorder) as was speculated.

A visibly glum Tharoor faced searching questions nearly three weeks after a case of murder was registered on the basis of a medical report that concluded that she died of poisoning.

This is for the first time Tharoor has been questioned on death of 52-year-old Sunanda by the police. He was earlier examined by the SDM who was carrying out an inquest proceeding in the case. She was found dead at a luxury hotel on January 17 last year.

A five-member Special Investigation team comprising DCP(South) Prem Nath, Additional DCP PS Kushwah besides three officers.

Tharoor, donning a blue shirt and a black jacket, reached the office of Anti Auto Theft Squad (AATS)in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area. Tharoor was issued a notice by SIT to join the investigation.

The Congress MP had a meeting with his lawyers at his residence in Lodhi Estate before proceeding to SIT’s temporary office which has been heavily barricaded to keep a waiting media at bay. .

Sources also said that police had already prepared a list of questions to be asked to Tharoor.

The former union minister was also quizzed about another woman who his domestic help Narayan named in frequent tiffs between the couple.

Tharoor was also asked about the last time he saw Sunanda alive and the happenings on the night of January 17 when he first found her dead at the hotel suite.

He was also asked when was the time fissures started to appear between him and Sunanda and what were the reasons for it. He was asked about his visit to Dubai and his alleged meeting with Mehr Tarar there.

Sources said that many times Tharoor turned emotional during the questioning but soon regained his composure. He was asked whether he had had any scuffle with Sunanda on the intervening night of January 16 and 17 which had led to the injury marks on her body and the broken glass pieces in the room.

He was asked to list out the people who had met them at the hotel and why they had called doctors to the hotel room instead of rushing her to a nearby hospital when they had found that “something has happened to her”.

Sunanda was found dead in her suite at Leela Palace hotel on January 17 last year, a day after she was involved in a spat with Mehr Tarar on micro-blogging website twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor.

Some of those questioned in the case so far include Tharoor’s domestic help Narayan Singh, family friend Sanjay Dewan, the hotel doctor who pronounced her dead and hotel staff including its manager.

Sources said that police will also question in a day or two a woman journalist with whom Sunanda had spoken before her death and Tharoor’s PS Abhinav Kumar who had informed the then SHO of Sarojini Nagar police station about the death.

Police had filed a case of murder under section 302 of IPC on January 1.

The SIT will send Sunanda’s viscera samples to a lab in the US or the UK to determine the nature and quantity of the poison which caused her death, police said.

Delhi Police Commissioner B S bassi has said the process to send her viscera samples to a lab abroad is on.

When reporters asked Bassi about BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s tweet alleging that Tharoor wrote to an investigating officer in the case in December, the police chief saw nothing wrong with it, saying anybody can write a letter to them.

“So if anything is being said by Mr Tharoor, as said by you, if it would be relevant, it would be part of our investigation and if it is not relevant, it won’t be part of investigation,” said Bassi while adding that the police have not replied to any of Tharoor’s letters.

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