I Have Been Targeted for No Fault of Mine: AIIMS Offcial Dr. Sudhir Gupta

Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, was found dead on January 17, 2014, at a five-star hotel in Delhi. Dr. Sudhir Gupta, head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) forensic medicine department had said that the death was due to 'poisoning'. Dr. Gupta had also written to the chief vigilance commission complaining that he was pressurized by top officials to produce a false report. In a fresh move, Dr. Gupta has now accused the director of the institute of targeting him and seeking his removal. Dr. Gupta said, "For the first time, the head of any department at AIIMS has been targeted by the director of the institute. I have been targeted for no fault of mine. This is absolutely uncalled for. I had written to the union health ministry that I was under tremendous pressure to change the Sunanda Pushkar autopsy report and state the death as natural. AIIMS has moved the high court to replace me without any directions from the ministry. I shall appeal against it as and when I get any notice from the court."

AIIMS had moved an application in the Delhi High Court seeking to replace Dr. Gupta as the head of the forensic medicine department at the institute and reinstate former department head Dr. D.N. Bhardwaj. The court will hear the matter on July 23, 2015.

In his fresh letter written to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Dr. Gupta had alleged a tacit understanding between AIIMS director Dr. M.C. Misra and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for making a tailor made post-mortem report in the Pushkar case. Dr. Gupta said in his letter dated May 28, "I was asked by Misra to give a post-mortem report of late Sunanda Pushkar as natural death which was contrary to the findings."

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police had registered a case of murder in the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar and sent her viscera samples to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laboratory in the US to identify the nature of poison that caused her death.

Source-IANS