The News Minute| October 10, 2014| 12.50 pm IST
A post-mortem report of Sunanda Tharoor that concludes that she died due to poisoning prepared by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) was submitted to Delhi Police by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
On Thursday night, channels started flashing news about the new revelations in the Sunanda Pushkar death case. On Friday morning a harried Shashi Tharoor ducked questions from the media, Union Health minister Harshvardhan claimed that since it was a medico-legal case, only the police could comment and another Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu asked for a fresh probe.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi told reporters in New Delhi that , ”The forensic report at the moment is not conclusive, our inquest status in today's date is pending."
There is a lot of outrage, clarion calls for reinvestigation and action against Tharoor.
So what can happen now?
The Delhi police can launch a fresh criminal investigation on the basis of the findings of the post mortem report, as the ongoing probe has anyway yielded no results. But going by the Delhi Police Commissioner’s take, it seems the Delhi Police is not convinced with the AIIMS report.
Sources in the Delhi police say they are waiting for political clearance, from the central government. With no signs of Delhi police taking up the case by itself, the green signal will have to come from the Ministry of Home Affairs. But is the central government is a mood to start fresh investigation? The signals emanating are clearly conflicting.
A CBI probe?
Again, this requires clearance from the Delhi police. The Delhi reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs and can ask the Lieutenant General for permission that can then be forwarded to MHA.
Tharoor in the last few days has received a lot of flak from the Congress party over the invite he received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Swacch Bharat campaign. Surprisingly, quite a few members of the BJP have extended sympathies to Tharoor.
Complaint from Sunanda’s family?
One way in which the case could move ahead is if Sunanda’s family lodges a complaint, but they have maintained right from the beginning that they trust Tharoor.