Twist in Sunanda Pushkar case: Post mortem report says she was poisoned

The controversy over the death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, took a new turn on Thursday with the leak of her latest post mortem report submitted to AIIMS, that stated the cause of death as “poisoning”. The Delhi police have been asked to ’re-examine’ the case, following the latest revelation. The finding could now pave the way for the Delhi Police to register a First Information Report (FIR) against unknown persons and take up the investigation again. However Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat told IANS that “under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the inquest proceeding in the Sundanda Pushkar case is still pending and we didn’t add anything to it.” The came around ten days after the post mortem report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) was submitted to the Delhi Police by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). [caption id=“attachment_1750505” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Did Pushkar die of poisoning? PTI[/caption] It states that the traces of the drug alprax, which was found in her body, was not enough of a lethal dose to kill her. “It also states that Sunanda was not suffering from Lupus (a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks tissues and organs) as claimed by her husband Shashi Tharoor”, the New Indian Express reported, adding that “The report demolished several previous findings that claimed Sunanda was not suffering from any ailments and that she was healthy and had no disease of heart, kidney, liver or lung.” The leaked report said that the AIIMS medical board “had thoroughly pursued the various documents that were submitted to them by the investigating officers along with the post mortem report and histopathology report of viscera after which it was concluded the cause of Pushkar’s death was poisoning”. “Viscera are positive for ethyl alcohol, caffeine, acetaminophen and cotinine,” it said. The document also revealed that the medical report reserved comment on the specific poison or chemical responsible since there were a lot of limitations on the viscera report. However a Hindustan Times report notes that “senior officers privy to the “informal communication” said both reports were ‘inconclusive’, ‘muddled’ and ‘based on conjecture’ and that they were yet to take a call on their course of action. It also quoted an officer as saying, “The AIIMS report just reiterated the results forwarded to us by FSL. All it said was that Pushkar could not have died of an Alprax overdose,” said an officer, adding, “At the same time, both communications failed to specify the nature of poison that they claimed led to her death.” “The duration of injuries have been opined already. However, the reason of these physical injuries, circumstantial evidences and statements have not been submitted by the investigative officer,” the report states. Pushkar, 52, was found dead in her room at a five-star hotel in south Delhi on 17 January. With inputs from IANS