After studying the viscera report of Sunanda Pushkar sent by United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, a medical board examining the death has submitted its findings to the Delhi Police.
Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi disclosed this 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 is currently on at the Delhi Police Headquarters after which senior officers are likely to update the media.
Last November, Nr. 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.
The new report will now be used by the SIT in the probe ahead.
Sunanda was found dead inside her suite at a five-star hotel here in January 2014, a day after she was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
PTI adds
Her viscera samples were sent to the FBI lab in Washington DC in February last year to determine the kind of poison that killed her after an AIIMS medical board identified poisoning as the reason behind her death but did not mention any specific substance.
The FBI report had virtually rules out the theory of ’polonium poisoning’ having caused her death. However, after Delhi police failed to draw any conclusion on basis of the findings, the report was handed over to a medical board for examination before further proceedings in the high-profile case.
The investigators have so far conducted polygraph test on six persons, all prime witnesses in the case, including Tharoors’ domestic help Narayan Singh, driver Bajrangi and Sanjay Dewan, a close friend of the couple. Tharoor has been questioned in the case.
Deaths due to Polonium
In 2013, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned to death using the very hard to detect poison, namely radioactive polonium, which must have been administered to him along with his daily food, drinks and medication, said the final medical report.
In 2006, the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who turned a counter spy and sought asylum in UK, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. It was later shown that he was poisoned by Russian agents who spiked his tea with substantial amounts of Po.
