Sunanda Pushkar death case: HC pulls up Delhi Police for delay in de-sealing Hotel Leela Palace suite

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Saturday pulled up the Delhi Police for the delay in de-sealing the room in Hotel Leela Palace where former union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in January 2014.

During the hearing, the lawyers representing the hotel told the court that the particular room has been sealed since 2015, but no evidence collected till date.

The police on Friday submitted a note saying that a CFSL expert team will visit the hotel on September 1 for collecting evidence.

A Delhi court in July had ordered the Delhi Police to de-seal the room in Hotel Leela Palace.

Directing the room be de-sealed within four weeks and asking the Investigating Officer in the case to file a compliance report by August 19, the court had observed that police didn't give any reasonable ground to continue sealing of the room.

The hotel had claimed that due to the sealing of the suite, which costs between Rs 55,000 and Rs 61,000 a night, it has suffered a loss of over Rs 50 lakh in the last three years.

Sunanda Pushkar, 52, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Delhi's Hotel Leela Palace on January 17, 2014. The suite was sealed henceforth.

A FIR was registered by Delhi Police on January 1, 2015, against unknown persons under Section 302 (murder).