File photo of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar
The Delhi Police is considering moving court for permission to conduct a lie detector test on Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case, sources told NDTV. Currently, meetings are being held to take a decision on when to approach the court, the sources said.
The police needs court permission conduct the test on Mr Tharoor. A polygraph, or a lie detector test, can be held only with the permission of the court and the agreement of Mr Tharoor, the sources said.
Mr Tharoor's office said this evening that it has "always said (Mr Tharoor) will cooperate with the probe," adding that it has received "no official request from the police so far for a polygraph test."
The Delhi Police, which is investigating the death of Mr Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar, has already conducted polygraph tests on six people in the case, including Narain Singh, Mr Tharoor's domestic help, driver Bajrangi and family friend Sanjay Dewan, all listed as prime witnesses.
"Our investigation is continuing and whatever is required to be done will be done. So far we have carried out polygraph tests on six persons. If there is any requirement we will conduct further tests," Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had said earlier this month.
Sunanda Pushkar, 51, was found dead at the luxurious Leela Hotel in the capital in January 2014. In January this year, the police claimed that Ms Pushkar, 51, was poisoned, and registered a murder case against unknown persons.
Investigators are also awaiting a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI in the US to determine what kind of poison was found in Sunanda Pushkar's body.
Her viscera samples were sent to the FBI lab in Washington in February this year after a panel of doctors from Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences concluded that the poison could not be detected in Indian labs.