Tharoor, forensic doctor will be examined if needed, says police

With a senior All India Institute of Medical Sciences forensic doctor reportedly alleging that he was pressurised to manipulate the autopsy report of Sunanda Pushkar, Delhi police on Wednesday said it will “examine” him and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor if needed.

“Whatever will happen in this case in the future I can’t tell you right now but want you to know that the investigation in the case is going on. Whatever is necessary is being done. If it will be necessary to examine Dr Gupta, he will be,” said Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi.

“If it is necessary to take on record the affidavit which apparently has been filed by him before the Central Administrative Tribunal that too will be taken into account,” he said.

“We will be conducting the enquiries keeping in view the legal position and relevance of the evidence. If it necessary to examine Tharoor then it will be done,” he said. Sunanda was found dead in a five-star 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.

Inquest proceedings under Section 174 CrPC were initiated in the Sunanda case according to which a sub-divisional magistrate inquires into the death of a woman if she dies within seven years of her marriage.

Delhi police is investigating the case after the SDM asked them to probe it. Gupta refused to comment on his reported allegation, saying he has already stated the facts before the “competent” authorities.

“I don’t want to comment on this issue. It is a legal matter, a serious issue. I cannot share with the media. I am a government servant. Whatever I wanted to say, I have said at a competent place,” he said.

Gupta, who was heading the panel that conducted Sunanda’s post mortem, has reportedly alleged he was pressurised to show that her death was natural which he resisted. The autopsy report had mentioned more than a dozen injury marks on Sunanda’s hands and an abrasion on her cheek which suggests a “use of blunt force”, besides a “deep teeth bite” on the edge of her left palm.