Several unanswered questions emerged from Day One
Sunanda Pushkar’s death in room no 345 of leela Kempinski Hotel at Chanakyapuri area on Jaunary 17, 2014 was a case of homicide from the moment her body was discovered. Alok Sharma, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Vasant Vihar, who had conducted the inquest proceedings, wrote in his report to Ameya Abhyankar (the then Deputy Commissioner of New Delhi district), “It appears to be a case of murder, not caused by drug-overdose. Police should probe this angle further to ascertain the exact cause that led to her death.” The Delhi Police top brass then sat on the SDM’s report and dragged their feet on investigations in the name of ‘inquest proceedings’.
From Day 1, there were several unanswered questions pertaining to the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor followed by the allegations of a senior All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) forensic expert, that he was pressurised to alter the autopsy report. The SDM, who conducted the inquest proceedings under Section 174 CrPC in the Sunanda case, had opined that Sunanda’s death was not caused by drug overdose. The SDM had said, “Sunanda’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 report by AIIMS that did not assign any cause of death. The preliminary Viscera report too added to the confusion as it said the exact cause of death was yet to be determined.
According to the autopsy reports by Dr Sudhir Gupta and his team, there were more than dozen injury marks on Sunanda’s hands and a ‘deep 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. Dr Gupta had then alleged that he was pressurised to show that her death was natural which he resisted.
The case diary and search and seizure memorandum by the Sarojini Nagar police station staff had mentioned the recovery of two drugs, namely - Alprazolam and Excedrin. The autopsy report negated any residue of these drugs in the stomach of the deceased. There was more twist in the recorded statement of Narayanan, the staffer to Sunanda. He had given a detailed statement to the South district police on how Sunanda and Shashi Tharoor had fought a day before her death. According to Narayanan, “there was huge quarrel and physical fight between husband and wife. It was around 12.30 am, when Tharoor came out of the room while Sunanda was talking to somebody over phone.”
According to Naryanan’s statement recorded by the Investigating Officer (IO), “he got up at 6 am on January 17, 2014 (the day Sunanda was discovered dead in her hotel room) and as usual gave a foot massage to Sunanda. He also said that while she massaged her feet, she did not respond and he thought that she must be fast asleep. Tharoor left the hotel room by 7:30 am to attend a meeting of the Congress Committee at Talkotara stadium”.
Narayanan further stated that he had left the room by 10 am after an assistant to Tharoor one staffer and his driver came to the room. Narayanan returned around 4:30 pm. “The conduct of these two men employed with Tharoor is highly suspicious and they should have been confronted by the sleuths,” sources further added. Narayanan said that was around 7:30 pm that day when he and one of the assistants of Tharoor informed the then Union Minister that Sunanda was not responding.
Sunanda was found dead in a room of leela Kempinski Hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, a day after her twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor.