A timeline of Sunanda Pushkar murder case two years after her death
By Harshmeet Singh
Today is the second death anniversary of Sunanda Pushkar. Despite being a high-profile murder case, the investigative agencies have little to show for their efforts 2 years after she was found dead in a hotel in New Delhi. Albeit a new revelation comes up every second month, the case is nowhere near its conclusion.
To refresh your memory and bring you up to date with the murder mystery, NewsGram presents a timeline of events that followed Sunanda Pushkar's death.
17th January, 2014: Sunanda Pushkar is found dead in her hotel room at the Delhi's Leela Palace Hotel. The police initially suspect a case of medicine overdose or suicide.
19th January, 2014: After her post-mortem at AIIMS, doctors term her death as 'sudden, unnatural'. The autopsy report pointed towards a case of poisoning and stayed quiet on the question of suicide. The report also noted over a dozen injury marks on her hands and a 'deep teeth bite' of her left palm. It also overruled 'drug overdose'.
21st January, 2014: A sub-divisional enquiry, which is ordered in case the wife dies before seven years of marriage, concludes that she died of poison and directed the investigative agencies to probe this angle. In the report, the SDM said that there could have been a possibility of three cases, viz. homicidal, suicidal and accidental.
23rd January, 2014: Investigators probe the angle of hidden poisoning. Her autopsy showed the presence of Alprazolam and Excedrin is her body. Her viscera samples are taken and sent to CFSL for more tests.
1st July, 2014: The doctor who carried out her Post-mortem alleges that he has been discriminated against since he refused to bow down to the pressures of "top officials of the institute and then senior Congress ministers" while making the report.
10th October, 2014: Delhi Police asked to re-examine the case after a new report indicated the presence of drug alprax in her body. It also said that she wasn't a patient of Lupus, as Shashi Tharoor claimed. Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease wherein the immune system of the body attacks tissues and organs.
6th January, 2015: Delhi Police says she was murdered after the medical board declared her demise 'unnatural'. Bassi was quoted as saying, "Medical report says she was poisoned, oral or injected we do not know, it is being investigated". A case of murder is registered.
13th February, 2015: Shashi Tharoor, her husband and a former Union minister, is questioned by the SIT for the third time in less than 24 hours.
March – June 2015: Delhi Police conducts polygraph tests on six people in relation to the Sunanda Pushkar murder case.
12th November, 2015: FBI report rules out death due to the intake of radioactive material. Her viscera samples were sent to the US after traces of radioactive materials were reported in her body.
16th January, 2016: FBI report says the death may have been caused by an overdose of the anti-anxiety drug Alprax. Delhi Police Commissioner, BS Bassi says that her death was 'not natural'.
