nion Home Minister Rajnath Singh has agreed to look into Subramanian Swamy's demand to have a Special Investigation Team (SIT), monitored by the CBI, probe the Sunanda Pushkar death case. In a detailed letter written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Swamy had cited discrepancies in the Sunanda case and had demanded a SIT probe. Rajnath Singh replied to Swamy on 21 July. A copy of the letter is with this newspaper.

This assumes significance since the authorities at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), are ready with their final report supposed to establish the "cause of death". The final report will include the findings of her viscera and other chemical analysis test reports.

"We have already prepared the final report. It is pending with the hospital authorities who will decide when to submit it to the concerned agencies," Dr Sudhir K. Gupta, head of forensic department, AIIMS told this newspaper.

Gupta headed the three-member panel, which conducted Pushkar's autopsy after she was found dead on 17 January under mysterious circumstances at south Delhi's Leela hotel. However, recently, stirring up a controversy, Gupta claimed before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that he was under "pressure" to manipulate Pushkar's post-mortem report, but he did not give into it. The AIIMS refuted the doctor's claims.

Swamy, however, quoting police sources has alleged that Sunanda's husband Shashi Tharoor (former minister of state in the UPA government) was told of her sudden death much earlier in the day but he chose to pretend that he learnt about it only after he reached his hotel suite at around 7.30 p.m. after attending a day-long Congress party meeting.

"According to reliable police sources, Tharoor was telephoned about his wife's death before he reached his hotel room. However, he claimed that he discovered that she had died only after he went to see her in the room upon his return. There are many such discrepancies in the case which have not been disclosed," Swamy told this newspaper. Image 2nd

He also maintains that Sunanada was "poisoned". "There was poison in her blood, which the initial autopsy report had also confirmed. Contradicting this, the viscera test report has ruled out 'death due to poison'. However, what is not known is that the viscera samples were tested only for ten poisons. She was given a Russian poison, which the viscera has not been tested for. That is primarily the reason why Dr Gupta is not being allowed to present his final report," Swamy claimed.

The Delhi police has been awaiting the final report to make some headway in the case. Soon after the controversy surfaced, Delhi police commissioner B.S. Bassi had also hinted that the MHA may ask a fresh panel of doctors to prepare the final report. The police has not been able to file an FIR in the case so far since the findings of the viscera report are inconclusive.

Swamy further claimed that the surveillance cameras on the floor of the hotel where the couple stayed were purposely "switched off". "It has not been allowed to be revealed that the CCTV cameras on the said floor were not found functional on that particular day. Tharoor did not kill her, but he knew who did. He was complicit in the act," he alleged.

He added that a CBI probe was crucial since there were intelligence inputs of Sunanda's alleged involvement in money laundering from various external agencies including the IPL.

Soon after Sunanda's death, Swamy had alleged that it was a "murder" and had questioned Tharoor's nervousness regarding his wife's death and her rushed cremation, even as the preliminary police investigation in the case was on.