(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Aiims staffer alleges autopsy report was doctored central government orders probe
The death of sunanda pushkar has returned to haunt her husband and former indian junior minister shashi tharoor with the national democratic alliance (nda) government ordering a probe into allegations that her autopsy report was doctored.Health minister harsh vardhan ordered the probe on a letter he received from dr sudhir gupta head of forensic sciences at the all india institute of medical sciences (aiims) saying that tharoor and former aiims president and health minister ghulam nabi azad had pressured him to cover up the matter.Vardhan told reporters at new delhi on wednesday that he had asked aiims director to conduct the probe. gupta has also raised the allegation before the central administrative tribunal (cat) where he is contesting charges of plagiarism and misconduct slapped on him by the aiims authorities.In an affidavit he filed before the cat on june 30 to counter the charges against him he said that they were part of victimization he is facing in the institution for refusing to abide by the diktat of top political authorities. he alleged a conspiracy to oust him as the head of the department. he termed the promotion of another doctor as professor in the forensic department as part of a move to replace him as the head of the department.Gupta who headed the panel that conducted sunanda’s postmortem said that he could not document the entire facts regarding the causes of the death as he was under duress from the two powerful politicians. to buttress his claim he has attached hard copies of the e-mail exchanged between the aiims director and tharoor.He has also sought the permission of the cat to give his findings in sealed envelope. in his report submitted to the sub-divisional magistrate gupta had described drug overdose as the case of sunanda’s death. the subsequent viscera report however ruled out the presence of any poison or trace of drug in sunanda’s body.Aiims authorities have denied neither any manipulation in the postmortem report nor any pressure on gupta to change his findings. they pointed out that gupta himself had handed over the report in a sealed cover to the sdm.Tharoor refused to comment on the allegations. however he pointed in a facebook post that from the very beginning he had requested for a thorough probe by the authorities to be conducted and concluded rapidly and transparently.“the pushkar family has taken the same view and we have all fully cooperated with the authorities. i reiterate my request to bring this protracted inquiry to a clear and definitive conclusion at the earliest so as to put all speculation to rest.”Sunanda was found dead in a five-star hotel at chanakkyapuri in new delhi on january 17 2014. her body was found by tharoor around 8pm when he returned to the hotel after attending a meeting of the all india congress committee.The death followed a bitter verbal spat sunanda had with a pakistani journalist mehr tarar on twitter over her alleged affair with her husband. tarar had denied the allegations. the investigation by the delhi police has not unraveled the mystery surrounding the death so far.Meanwhile bharatiya janata party leader and noted lawyer subramanian swamy who has been demanding a court-monitored probe into the death said that he will file a petition seeking an investigative probe by the supreme court.Newskhaleejtimes.com
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