Tharoor says wife Sunanda’s post-mortem report was concealed by former AIIMS forensic chief

Tharoor's lawyer cited the prosecution report and said the original copy of the report was concealed by Sudhir Gupta.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor | Wikimedia Commons

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Thursday told a Delhi court that former AIIMS forensic chief Sudhir Gupta concealed the post-mortem report of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

Tharoor’s lawyer cited the prosecution report and told Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj that Gupta, who no longer works with AIIMS, concealed the original copy of the report and was flashing the documents in the media.

“Original documents are with Dr Sudhir Gupta who no longer works with AIIMS. Those documents should not be with him. How can he carry documents wherever he goes? Those documents needed to be filed in the court.

“It is deliberately concealed. Gupta, who is retired already, is going and flashing documents in media,” senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, said.

Pahwa made the allegations while seeking certain documents provided to him by the prosecution in electronic form, saying he was not able to access them.

“Each and every document on which the reliance is placed should be given,” the counsel said.

Tharoor, meanwhile, was granted exemption from personal appearance by the court for the day, after a request was made by his counsel in this regard.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava, appearing for Delhi police, opposed the submissions made by Tharoor’s advocate saying that “26 adjournments were taken during 8 months 18 days, between the filing of charge sheet and the committal of case to the special court.”

The court has now put up the matter for March 15 when it will pronounce order on Tharoor’s plea seeking documents.

The court had on February 4 sent the case to Sessions Court for further proceedings since the offence under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was triable by a sessions judge.

Tharoor, former Union minister, has been charged under sections 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 306 of the IPC, but has not been arrested in the case.

Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.