Cops sidestep SC orders in not booking Tharoor
14 Oct 2014 5:21 AM IST
Last week, soon after the second report from the panel of doctors from the forensic department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) became public, Bassi said, ‘The forensic evidence available on the mysterious death of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar, is not conclusive.’
The report on the other hand has reiterated its earlier stand that Pushkar died of poisoning. The report is also fair in stating that it has not been able to establish the type of poison which could have caused the death. Delhi police commissioner is taking refuge in this particular aspect of the report and ignoring the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled in at least two matters that identity of the poison was not important to establish the crime. The last order in the matter is less than a year old.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and J Chelameswar in its order dated 17 December 2013 in CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1613 of 2008 mentions to a case of Madhya Pradesh High Court where the bench ‘held that the production of chemical examination report is not mandatory. The court held that ‘as long as there is evidence of poisoning, identification of the poison may not be absolutely necessary.’ The Supreme Court in its order said: ‘On the facts of that case, this court reached to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence on record to come to the conclusion that the death was due to poisoning.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur in another case, CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 1774 of 2008, takes a similar view that identity of poison was not important in the determination of a case. ‘
All this evidence clearly suggests that there was no doubt that Geeta Bai (the victim) had died an unnatural death and that her death was due to consumption of some poisonous substance. What exactly is the poison she consumed pales into insignificance even on the facts of the case and the evidence on record.’
Now with the best known forensic team of the country having established that the death was due to poisoning and in light of the Supreme Court order, there is sufficient scope for Bassi’s team to file the First Information Report and start investigation. There are sufficient evidence on record of public spat between the couple, following which Pushkar had checked into a hotel, where see subsequently died under mysterious circumstances.
Bassi’s police have also chosen to overlook the fact that Tharoor decided to influence the examination by the forensic surgeons when the post-mortem examination was being done as reported by Millennium Post in its edition dated 3 July, 2014, which has not been refuted.
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