New Delhi: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has asked for a report on an AIIMS doctor's allegation he was pressured to manipulate a report on the death of former union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor.

The minister has sought a report from the director of AIIMS, or the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The hospital's chief forensic doctor, Sudhir Gupta, has reportedly written to the health ministry and the Chief Vigilance Commission alleging that he was pressured to show Sunanda Tharoor's death as natural.

Dr Gupta has allegedly claimed that he is being targeted because he did not give in to the pressure and said in his report that Sunanda died of drug poisoning.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "Dr Gupta had given a letter related to his promotion but media reported that there was a specific allegation in his letter. I have asked the AIIMS director for a report."

52-year-old Sunanda Tharoor was found dead in a room in a five-star hotel on January 18, days after a very public spat on social media with a Pakistani journalist she suspected was involved with her husband.

The post-mortem report by the AIIMS medical board said Sunanda died of poisoning. Her viscera report indicated were traces of the anti-depressant drug Alprax in her system but did not confirm any "poisonous" substance.

Dr Gupta, who headed the panel that conducted Mrs Tharoor's post-mortem, claims he was pressured to act in an "unprofessional manner" to cover up the case.

In his letter, he reportedly alleged a "malafide agenda to oust me as Head of Department" which he said "have genesis in the cases of Sunanda Pushkar and Nido Tania since I had taken a professional and ethical stand which went against the vested interests of certain persons in AIIMS."