Delhi Police to question Kerala doctors who examined Sunanda Pushkar: Report

Delhi Police SIT may question doctors who examined Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Shashi Tharoor at KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

Delhi: The Delhi Police Special Investigating Team (SIT) may question doctors who examined Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor at KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

CNN IBN quoted sources as saying that the police had planned to expand the probe into Sunanda's death case.

The Congress leader's wife was undergoing treatment at KIMS hospital before she came to the national capital.

The report also said that couple of days back a team of investigators had visited medicine shops in Lodhi Road area Delhi to inquire what medicines (if at all) were bought for Sunanda.

This pertained to her duration of stay at a Delhi hotel where she was found dead on January 17, 2014.

At the same time, Tharoor's family driver Bajrangi and personal staff Narayan Singh along with family friends were reportedly re-examined for further probe.

On February 15, the case of sensational death of Sunanda reached a new stage with the FBI endorsing the AIIMS report of poisoning as the cause and also saying that a "dangerous chemical" was present in her body that may have killed her.

Disclosing the receipt of the AIIMS report analysing the FBI conclusions, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had told the media that Sunanda's death was not natural but ruled out the presence of radioactive material in her viscera.

Sudhir Gupta, head of AIIMS Forensic Science department, had said that the FBI report also said the death was due to poisoning as was concluded by the AIIMS.

"One thing is clear that the death was not natural. It was unnatural as per our investigation till now and evidence collected so far. I can say that with certainty," Bassi had told reporters, as per PTI.

Gupta had also said that the FBI has not ruled out completely the presence of radioactive substances in viscera samples. 

He had added that the FBI analysis of stomach, spleen, liver, kidney and urine has endorsed the cause of death saying that "the same poison is present in all the viscera".

In January last year, Delhi Police had registered a case of murder in connection with the death of Sunanda.

An AIIMS medical board had found poisoning as reason for her death following which the police had sent her viscera samples to an FBI lab in Washington last year.

There was earlier speculation that Sunanda may have died as a result of poisoning through radioactive substances.

The FBI had sent its report to Delhi Police around more than two months ago.

The report said the radiation levels in Sunanda's viscera samples were "within the standard safety norms" besides mentioning other details.

As police could not firm up about cause of the death based on the FBI report, they requested a medical board of AIIMS to analyse the contents of the report.

(With Agency inputs)