In a development helping Delhi Police to gain ground in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case probe, a medical board examining the death has submitted its conclusions on the exact nature of substance which killed Ms. Pushkar.
PTI reported that Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi has said that the death was “not natural. It was unnatural as per our investigation till now and evidences collected so far. I can say that with certainty.”
The board submitted its findings to the Delhi Police after going through the report of Ms. Pushkar's viscera tested in the Washington D.C. based forensic lab of Federal Bureau of Investigation late last year. The report received from AIIMS is a detailed one running into 11 pages said Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi without divulging what the contents of the new report was.
He, however, added that the findings have placed investigators at a better ground and that he may divulge the name of the poisonous substance through his twitter account. It was also on twitter that the police chief announced that the report has been shared. Through a tweet sent on Friday morning in which he also added that Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra will review the progress.
"Have been told that Medical Board's advice in late Sunanda's case has been received. Deepak is reviewing progress. Merits shall be ensured," said the tweet.
A meeting between Mr. Mishra and the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the case also took place at the Delhi Police Headquarters.
Last November, Mr. Bassi had said U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation’s lab report of Sunanda Pushkar’s viscera samples had ruled out polonium or any other radioactive poisoning as the cause of death.
On the latest report, the Police Commissioner said the new evidence have put another stamp on the line taken by the police so far that the death was unnatural.
He added that the police would be taken to a logical conclusion, providing an open ended reply to the query whether the conclusion would be closure or a charge sheet.
Mr. Bassi said the high-profile case will be taken to its logical conclusion soon and all possible angles are being examined.
"One thing is clear that the death was not natural. It was unnatural as per our investigation till now and evidences collected so far. I can say that with certainty," Mr. Bassi told reporters in New Delhi.
In January 2015, 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 two months back. 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.
Sunanda was found dead at a suite in five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
"I have no knowledge on the mention of any dangerous chemical in the FBI report. The FBI report had said none of the samples contained any radioactive material. I can confirm there's no radiaoactive material but certain other findings are there. We had given the entire report to the medical board which has examined and gave us a report.
"FBI report had said that radioactive levels were within acceptable range. It had ruled out the radioactive angle. Certain other chemical compounds were found by the FBI lab. The medical board has given certain conclusions. We will investigate those," Mr. Bassi said.
(With PTI inputs)
