Sunanda death not natural: police chief

Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said on Saturday the high-profile case would be taken to its logical conclusion soon and all possible angles are being examined. “One thing is clear that the death was not natural. It was unnatural as per our investigation till now and evidences collected so far. I can say that with certainty,” Bassi told reporters here. 

In January last year, Delhi Police had registered a case of murder in connection with the death of Sunanda. An AIIMS medical board had found poisoning as reason for her death following which the police had sent her viscera samples to an FBI lab in Washington last year. There was earlier speculation that Sunanda might have died as a result of poisoning through radioactive substances. 

The FBI had sent its report to Delhi Police two months ago. The report said the radiation levels in Sunanda’s viscera samples were “within the standard safety norms” besides mentioning other details. As police could not firm up about cause of the death based on the FBI report, they requested a medical board of AIIMS to analyse the contents of the report. “The medical board has submitted to us 11-page report with 32 pages of annexures which are to be examined. They have mentioned about certain conclusions which are now to be investigated,” Bassi said. 

Sunanda (51) was found dead at a suite in five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014, a day after her spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on micro-blogging website Twitter over her alleged affair with Tharoor. 

“I have no knowledge on the mention of any dangerous chemical in the FBI report. The FBI report had said none of the samples contained any radioactive material. I can confirm there’s no radiaoactive material but certain other findings are there... The medical board has given certain conclusions,” Bassi said.