New Delhi : Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar is likely to be questioned over the murder of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar, police said on Thursday. Tarar has, however, refused to come to India to join the probe but was willing to cooperate.
“Tarar is a relevant person in the case… If necessary, she will be examined,” Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said of the journalist who was said to be a close friend of Tharoor.
Tarar, 47, said she was not ready to come to India but would be happy to answer questions.
“I would like to answer any question Delhi Police have for me but I will not come to India for the probe,” Tarar told CNN-IBN news channel over telephone.
“They (Delhi Police) want to contact me directly or through the foreign office. Whatever the protocol is… I am ready to answer their questions,” she said.
Asked why she was being linked to the case, Tarar said: “My biggest mistake was to respond to Sunanda on Twitter…
“If I will be concerned about anything, I will share it with Delhi Police. But no one from Delhi Police has spoken to me so far.”
She said she has had no communication with Tharoor in the past one year.
Tarar’s alleged friendship with Tharoor had led to a row between Tharoor and Pushkar.
Asked if she was upset over the Twitter spat, she said: “Yes, I have said this many times… Becoming a tangle thing in another country when I wasn’t even in touch with the person I am supposed to be in touch with.
“We weren’t in contact. We weren’t speaking to one another. And, my biggest mistake was responding to whatever she (Pushkar) said on Twitter… which I shouldn’t have done.”
Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014 under mysterious circumstances. Police registered murder case on January 1, 2015.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police chief said the Special Investigating Team may question Tharoor for the third time, if required.
To a query about Sunanda’s viscera report, the police chief said: “We have told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lab in the United States to examine the viscera report as soon as possible.”
He also said that the police have seized several electronic equipment for investigation.