Sunanda Pushkar death case: Centre appoints new panel of doctors to analyse forensic evidence

New Delhi: With investigators failing to achieve a breakthrough in the mystery-shrouded Sunanda Pushkar death case, the central government has now set up a new panel of doctors to analyse the forensic evidence in the case.

Media reports said on Friday that the panel has been appointed by the Union Health Ministry.

As per reports, the new panel will have four doctors - two from Chandigarh and one each from Puducherry and Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi.

These doctors will be responsible for analysing all medical reports including the one from the FBI and help cops move the investigation in the right direction, as per the report.

The moves comes several weeks after the Delhi Police highlighted contradictions in reports given by various agencies pertaining to the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar.

Importantly, doctors associated with AIIMS too have failed to reach a conclusion over Sunanda Pushkar's death, two years after she ws found dead under mysterious circumstances.

The move comes in the backdrop of a letter written by Delhi Police to Director General of Health Services (DGHS) for constituting a new board to examine forensic findings of doctors from Delhi's AIIMS and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The 51-year-old businesswoman, who was married to former central minister and UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a Delhi hotel suite two years ago.

Just before her mysterious death, Pushkar had publicly accused her husband of having an extra-marital affair with a Pakistani journalist.

The Delhi Police later registered a case of murder without naming a suspect and questioned the Congress lawmaker more than once.

Doctors initially said Pushkar's death was unnatural while expressing apprehensions that she may have died due to overdosing on Alprax, an anti-depressant. Later, they said she may have died due to poisoning. Reports of viscera samples sent to an FBI lab showed traces of Alprax and ruling out the role of any radioactive substances.

Delhi Police later said that inconsistency in the medical reports has added to the confusion and a conclusion cannot be reached in such circumstances.

Tharoor and Pushkar tied the knot in 2010, in a third marriage for both.