AIIMS says nobody was pressured to alter autopsy report

NEW DELHI: Denying all allegations made by the head of its forensic department, Dr Sudhir Gupta, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that it was not even aware of any conversation between the doctor and former Congress Union minister, Shashi Tharoor.

The institute denied that any attempt was ever made to pressurise Dr Gupta to amend the postmortem report of Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar.

A statement issued by the institute on Wednesday stated: “The AIIMS administration categorically denies any such allegations that there was any attempt to pressurise Dr Sudhir Gupta to change the post-mortem report.” However, it acknowledged the case filed by the doctor before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). “There is also a case filed by Dr Gupta before the principal bench of CAT, New Delhi, regarding the promotion of a faculty member in the department of forensic medicine, AIIMS. The case is sub-judice and we cannot comment on it,” it said.

Reading out the statement, Dr Neerja Batla, chairperson, media and protocol division, AIIMS, said that the institute had no information about any conversation between the director of AIIMS and Tharoor. “The director is not even aware of any complaint sent to him by Dr Gupta regarding the issue,” she said. Not ruling out any disciplinary action against the doctor for having brought “untrue allegations” against AIIMS, she added that the decision for that would rest with the administration.