The Delhi Police and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are at loggerheads over the Sunanda murder case. According to highly placed sources, the Delhi Police has not yet handed over the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lab report to the AIIMS, while claiming in public otherwise. It has been learnt that police officers in charge with the probe of this much-talked about murder case had only short discussion last week with the forensic experts of AIIMS after the lab report was sent to the Delhi Police by the FBI.
Sources said police officials had only sought certain clarifications regarding the forensic aspects mentioned in the lab report. This was objected by AIIMS forensic experts and they made it amply clear to the Delhi Police top brass that they cannot answer the questions unless they study the full lab report. According to police officials, the AIIMS experts have insisted that they could give opinions only after the report from the FBI lab was handed over to them.
“Doctors expressed displeasure after the Delhi Police gave an impression that they have handed over the FBI lab report the Forensic Sciences department of AIIMS.”
They reportedly told police brass that they will not reply to any informal communication in this case as the matter is pending before the court. Sources in AIIMS said on Thursday that they will do everything on the record but only after they receive the full lab report from US. There are forces that are involved to scuttle the probe and that involve some officers of Delhi Police too, sources added.
From day one there were several unanswered questions pertaining to the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor and the allegations of an AIIMS forensic expert about pressure on him to alter the autopsy report. The SDM who conducted the inquest proceedings under Section 174 CrPC d in the Sunanda case had opined that Sunanda’s death was not caused by drug overdose.
Instead the SDM had said, “Sunanda Pushkar’s death was not caused by drug overdose but it was a case of homicide and it is up to the Delhi Police to probe this angle.” To add to the confusion was the post-mortem examination report by AIIMS that did not assign any cause of death. The preliminary Viscera report too added to the confusion as the exact cause of death was yet to be determined.
According to the autopsy examination conducted by Dr Sudhir Gupta and his team, there were more than dozen injury marks on Sunanda’s hands. There was a teeth bite on her left palm. There was abrasion on her cheek suggesting use of blunt force. Forensic experts had then preserved the Viscera samples and the same were sent to the Central Forensic Sciences laboratory (CFSl) for further tests. In order to clear the air, the Delhi Police had sent viscera samples to FBI lab in the US to determine the nature of poison and the report was sent to Delhi Police few days back.