DNA report blows wide open Sunanda Pushkar death mystery.
The Sunanda Pushkar death mystery was blown wide open after DNA’s Sumit Kumar Singh accessed a ‘secret report’ which revealed that from Day 1, the Delhi Police was of the view that Sunanda’s death wasn’t a case of suicide but murder.
Here are the big takeaways.
1) Authorities thought it wasn’t suicide
The first hard fact to emerge is that the concerned authorities were convinced that the incident wasn’t an act of suicide. According to the first report prepared in the case by then Deputy Commissioner of Police BS Jaiswal, it clearly states that the Sub Divisional Magistrate at Vasant Vihar Alok Sharma who inspected the place of crime at Leela Hotel and conducted the inquest proceeding was of view that it was not a suicide.
"The death was mysterious, and everything pointed out towards murder from day one," said a senior police officer who was then investigating the case said. The secret report had all the annexure, which included, post-mortem, chemical, biological and finger prints reports – accessed by DNA -- separately and each report pointed towards murder.
2) Autopsy report states that the cause of death was poisoning
The autopsy reported: "The cause of death of the best of my knowledge and belief is in this case is poisoning. The circumstantial evidenced are suggestive of alprazolam poisoning.” Interestingly, the report questioned the teeth bite marks of the hand of the Pushkar and also the injection mark on her hand. “Whether poisoned was orally given or injected is a matter to be probed,” the report stated.
3) She had fresh injection marks and non-contributing injuries
The autopsy further reading: “All the injuries mentioned are caused by blunt force, simple in nature, non-contributing to death and are produced in scuffle, except injury number 10 with an injection mark. Injury number 12 is teeth bite mark. The injuries number 1 to 15 is of various durations ranging from 12 hours to 4 days.”
The report clearly stated that the injection marks were fresh and that her body had scuffle marks.
4) 'Scuffle between Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar'
The report says that the injection marks were fresh. It also says the body had various scuffle marks. “These seem to have been caused due to scuffle between Sunanda Pushkar and her husband Shashi Tharoor as per the statement of their personal attendant Narain Singh,” states the report.
5) Police didn’t file a case into the matter even after finding cause of death
The report was submitted to then Southern Delhi range Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia, who was given a task to personally monitor the case Even after the cause of the death was found, the police did not file a case into the matter. And when the matter was transferred to crime branch after a week and the decision was taken to file an FIR, the case was transferred from the crime branch within four hours.
6) Delay in investigation
The crime branch had also visited the crime scene, but the decision of erstwhile Commissioner of Police BS Bassi led to a delay in registration of FIR in the case for a year which also caused the investigation to pushed back by almost two years.
7) She was found dead in a room different from one she was given
On January 17, 2014 at about 9 pm police came to know that Sunanda Pushkar has died in Room Number 345, which is a suite, at Hotel Leela Palace. Preliminary enquiries stated that she had checked in to this hotel on January 15, 2014 at 5: 46 pm. The room number 307 was earlier given to her later on she moved to Room number 345 in the afternoon on January 16, 1 2014.
8) She wanted to do a presser
Crime branch sleuths and journalist Nalini Singh stated that Sunanda wanted to call a presser. At 3 pm, she had asked her assistant to take out her white dress as she wanted to do a press conference. Alas, before she could call one, she was found dead.
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