Within the next four weeks I will be filing a PIL for a court monitored investigation into the murder of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor.
AIIMS faculty casts shadow on Sunanda’s report
2 July 2014, New Delhi, Team MP
The controversy around Kerala MP and former HRD minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar’s sudden unnatural death has deepened after a faculty member of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) alleged that he was pressurised by Tharoor and then health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to tailor Sunanda’s post-mortem examination report
In the five month-long ongoing investigation, contradictory reports of autopsy and viscera examination have confused the senior police officials. The autopsy report revealed drug poisoning to be the cause for her death while the viscera report had ruled out poisoning or overdose of Alprax tablets.
Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of the department (forensic medicine and toxicology) is heading the panel probing Sunanda’s death. Gupta had conducted Sunanda’s post-mortem examination after she was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a five-star hotel in south Delhi. According to sources, on 26 June, Gupta filed a rejoinder (in a sealed envelop) in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) alleging he was goaded by higher authorities to give a tailor-made report in the connection to the death. In his rejoinder, sources said, he has accused Tharoor and Ghulam Nabi Azad, president of AIIMS and former health minister, of pressuring him to act in an ‘unprofessional’ manner to hush up the matter. Gupta further sought CAT’s permission to give his opinion on the case.
On 30 June, Gupta shared few hard copies of the emails exchanged between Tharoor and Azad that allegedly contains the content of pressurising him to tailor the reports. ‘Investigation is on in all plausible angles to find the truth behind these e-mails and alleged pressure on Gupta as he was slapped with charges of misconduct by outgoing AIIMS president Azad, which he has contested in the CAT,’ the source added. ‘Investigation is on in all plausible angles to find the truth behind these e-mails and alleged pressure on Gupta as recently he has been slapped with charges of plagiarism and misconduct which he has been contesting in the CAT,’ the source added.