Sunanda Pushkar case: Medical team wants cops to probe emails sent to AIIMS

NEW DELHI: The medical probe report prepared by a team of three doctors in the Sunanda Pushkar case has asked Delhi Police to "investigate" the emails that people who claimed to be doctors sent to the AIIMS administration speculating on the cause of her death.

Dr Sudhir Gupta, who headed the probe team, had earlier alleged that the emails were forwarded from then Union minister Shashi Tharoor's email ID, and he was forced to give a tailor-made report.

"Email dated January 26 sent by Rajiv Bhasin (Noida) and the email dated February 12 sent by Dr Anil Gupta (Cooper Health Clinic, Dubai) after the death of Sunanda Pushkar require investigations to establish their speculation about the disease and cause of death," the report reads. These emails, sent to Tharoor by the alleged doctors, said the death could have been due to lupus—which she was supposedly suffering from—and drinking coconut water.

The board has asked for a forensic examination of the clothes Sunanda was wearing at the time of her death, apart from her mattress, bed sheet and pillow cover. There were white stains at six places on the top she was wearing and the lower had traces of acetaminophen, caffeine, lidocaine and methylparaben. The report says a through probe is necessary to find out why these chemicals were present on her clothes.

The probe team's report has also pointed out various inconsistencies on the part of police. It asks police to ascertain if Sunanda consulted a doctor during her stay in the hotel, and has asked for the report of the doctor who examined her after her death in the hotel room.

The report points out that medicines, including empty strips of Alprax (sleeping pills), were found in the hotel room but police did not investigate how these came to be in the room since Sunanda's viscera tested negative for Alprax.

The report makes it clear that Sunanda did not suffer from lupus, hypertension diabetes, tuberculosis or any other disease of the heart, lung or liver. She also did not have any autoimmune and connective tissue disorders.