NEW DELHI: The Indian minister’s wife who died in a hotel room last year after a public row over husband’s alleged links with a Pakistani journalist was murdered, Delhi Police said on Tuesday,

According to local reports, the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, got a new twist when the Delhi Police registered a murder case on Tuesday after a medical report said the death was unnatural and due to poisoning. The police have, however, not named any suspect.

Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said the conclusions made in a medical report submitted by a panel at AIIMS on Dec 29 necessitated registration of a murder case.

Mr Bassi told The Hindu that the report found that the poison was either injected or fed orally.

An injection mark on the body made the possibility of it being self-inflicted remote.

Mr Bassi said that if needed, Mr Tharoor would be called for questioning, which, sources said, could take place in a day or two.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi expressed the hope that the investigation would be “impartial and just, and appropriate action is taken”.

A medical board of AIIMS constituted to conduct the post-mortem examination concluded on Sept 30 that the death was due to poisoning.

The Delhi Police had sought clarifications from the board. The medical team conducted the autopsy along with teams from the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory and the police.

According to The Hindu, evidence collected by the teams was incorporated into the December report based on which a first information report under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was registered.

“Listed among the possibility (of poison) is Polonium-210, a rare and highly radioactive isotope, which is hard to detect because all the radiation remains in the body. A lethal dose could be as little as a few milligrams, which could be administered as a powder or dissolved in liquid/drinks,” said the AIIMS report.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2015

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