‘Spat over promotion behind controversy’
NEW DELHI: As sensational allegations about the sanctity of investigations into the death of f or mer Union minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar, surfaced, Delhi Police on Wednesday insisted that it probed the case ‘on merit’.
Senior officials maintained the issue had its roots in “a spat centering around a job promotion and professional frustration”.
But they said the police were open to reexamining the case, if the need arose.
“When the case was reported, we conducted investigations just like we were supposed to,” a senior police officer told HT.
Dr Sudhir Gupta, who headed the three-member team that conducted the autopsy on Sunanda’s body at AIIMS, has alleged that two UPA ministers tried to influence him to get the report altered.
“The crime scene was investigated thoroughly, forensic samples were collected and sent for examination -- the entire drill was followed as per protocol,” he said.
“Agencies concerned sent us these reports on the basis of which, and in accordance with the law, we initiated inquest proceedings into the case under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC),” the officer added.
A day after she was found dead at a suite in south Delhi’s Leela Palace hotel, police sources attributed Sunanda’s death to “imposed starvation and an overdose of a common prescription drug” in reaction to marital discord.
The hotel staff reportedly told the police that Sunanda was surviving on coconut water during her stay there i n addition t o more t han a dozen tablets of an antidepressant.
“Two packets of Alprazolam or Alprax were recovered from her purse,” a senior official privy to the investigation told HT. “One of these was empty while the other was half-consumed which means that she had taken 15 tablets in all,” the official added.
On March 23, HT had reported that Sunanda’s viscera report had concluded that there was no sign of poison in her body. Before the receipt of the said report, investigators were looking into the poison angle since both the post-mortem and sub-divisional magistrate’s (SDM) reports had pointed to the possibility of death by poisoning.