Sunanda Pushkar's death caused due to poisoning: AIIMS Forensic Dept.

The head of All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) forensic department, Sudhir Gupta on Saturday said that death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was unnatural and caused due to poisoning.

"Sunanda Pushkar's death was unnatural. We clearly said that this is a case of poisoning. This has been clearly stated in the opinion. This opinion has been made and formed on the basis of circumstantial evidence where certain drugs and poison have been recovered by Delhi police itself," Gupta told ANI.

Asserting that there is no iota of doubt in Sunanda's death case, he added, "This has also been confirmed by the chemical examination report of FBI America."

The AIIMS medical board had earlier in its reports, said that Sunanda was died of poisoning due to an overdose of the anti-anxiety drug Alprax.

According to a report by national daily Indian Express, the report states, " The circumstantial recovery of empty Alprax tablets (27 tablets) and report of FBI, which shows that presence of Alprax in stomach and its contents, spleen, liver, half of each kidney, blood sample, as well as urine wet clothing, bed cover and bed sheet, confirmed the death due to 'excessive ingestion of tablet alprazolam."

The medical board's report states that the FBI reported the presence of lidocaine, an antiarrhythmic drug of heart which may cause fatality if administered intravenously.

The board has also stated Pushkar was discharged in a perfectly healthy condition on January 14, 2014, from Kerala Institute Medical Sciences, and was never diagnosed as a case of lupus despite thorough investigation in several laboratories.

On an email claiming Pushkar had lupus and was consulting a doctor practising in Dubai, the medical board has stated it was a "desperate effort to mislead the investigation by a doctor who is not even a specialist of lupus and merely a child specialist".