Nalini knew of Shashi ‘affair’
NEW DELHI: Nalini Singh’s statement to police, which says Sunanda Pushkar told her hours before her death that Shashi Tharoor spent three days in Dubai with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar, may pose a problem for Tharoor, police sources said. Tarar allegedly told Shashi Tharoor that she could not live without him, Singh has claimed quoting Sunanda.As Delhi Police’s SIT goes through year-old evidence available with it before questioning Tharoor, sleuths say this part of the statement has ramifications and needs to be thoroughly probed. Tharoor was a Union minister at the time this alleged three-day meeting took place.

In her statement, Singh says, “I knew Sunanda socially for the last 3-4 years. Over the last one year or so, Sunanda had started talking to me about her private life and particularly about her relationship with Shashi. Almost 6-7 months ago, Sunanda had shared her pain over what she regarded as mutual romantic interest between Shashi Tharoor and a Pakistani journalist named Mehr Tarar.

“She told me that she was sure Tharoor and Tarar had spent three days together in Dubai in June 2013 and told me that, since she had a strong base in Dubai, her friends had informed her about it. And Sunanda had claimed she had proof of the allegations.

“At 12.10am, on the intervening night of January 16 and 17, I got a call on my mobile from Sunanda. She sounded extremely distraught and was sobbing. She said Shashi and Tarar had exchanged intimate romantic messages. One message from Tarar implied that Tharoor was going to divorce Sunanda after the forthcoming general elections and marry Tarar. And that Tarar has written in a message that she cannot live without him.

“Sunanda also alleged that Tharoor’s family was encouraging this affair. To my query on if the Twitter messages that were posted from Tharoor’s account were genuine, she said they were completely genuine and somebody who cared for her deeply had posted them in public space,” Singh said. Police believe this person was Sunil Trakru.

“Incidentally, she also said she had ‘taken over’ the crimes of Tharoor in the IPL matter. She said that Tharoor had never taken her to a hospital or doctor. She said she wanted my help in retrieving the BBM messages that Tharoor had deleted of his Blackberry. She said she already had a stock of such messages with her,” Singh said. During this conversation, Sunanda was joined by somebody (police said it was Narain) to whom she asked something about sahib and the male voice answered in Hindi.

Police commissioner B S Bassi, meanwhile, reiterated that they were conducting a fair and thorough probe into the murder.

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