Sunanda Pushkar case: To send viscera samples abroad for tests, says police chief

Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said Tuesday that the case was registered as a pre-requisite to sending Pushkar’s viscera samples abroad for further testing after a final medical report labelled the death as “unnatural”.

However, the registration of a case of murder suggests that police may question Tharoor in this regard. “Witnesses were examined by the Sub Divisional Magistrate. Police also examined relevant witnesses as part of the inquest proceedings under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Now under section 302 of IPC, we will examine whoever we need to,” Bassi said.

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Pushkar, 52, died on January 17, 2014 and Bassi said that the latest medical report confirmed death “due to poisoning”.

“On December 29, the medical board gave us a report saying the death is unnatural and due to poisoning, either administered orally or injected. For the quantum and quantification of poison, we will have to send the viscera abroad. For sending the viscera abroad we needed to register an FIR to facilitate the process,” the police chief said.

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“The FIR has been registered against unknown persons as we do not know yet who has committed the crime,” he said.

According to sources, Pushkar’s viscera samples, which includes those from all her internal organs, will be tested for poisons that cannot be identified in Indian forensic labs. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in their report to police on September 30 had identified six categories of poisons as examples, including thallium, polonium 210 and heroin.

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“It took us one year (to register a case of murder) because the report submitted by AIIMS was an interim one that had nothing definite. AIIMS also suggested some investigation points which we had to follow up. Several interactions happened between AIIMS and police after which a conclusive report was submitted by the panel of doctors on December 29, based on which we registered a case,” Bassi said.

While the police claimed that the autopsy panel submitted a conclusive report only on December 29, sources in the AIIMS medical board maintained they had clearly mentioned Pushkar’s death as ‘sudden and unnatural’, due to poisoning, in their preliminary report submitted on January 20 last year, three days after Pushkar’s death.