Even as Sunanda Pushkar’s second death anniversary approaches in just a couple of months from now, we ought to ask ourselves how this case and the media coverage has progressed so far. This is especially pertinent in light of the recent FBI report, prepared after examining the viscera samples of Sunanda Pushkar, sent to the Delhi Police which conclusively states that “no radioactive substance has been found in her body”. The development debunks a spectacular theory advanced by BJP leader and self-appointed Sherlock Holmes Subramanian Swamy that Sunanda had been administered a Russian poison — polonium 210, as part of a “larger conspiracy” to cover up an alleged IPL money laundering row, as she “knew too much”.
Now, the first question any layman would probably ask is whether Mr. Swamy, in a case that the Delhi Police has refrained from calling a “murder” just yet and hasn’t named anybody including Dr Shashi Tharoor (who has been nominated as the Clean India ambassador by our respected PM Modi notwithstanding these media allegations) as a suspect or an accused, had taken the trouble to record his “statement of facts” as a witness before the police or a magistrate since he claimed to know everything about Sunanda’s death and the motives behind it?
Quite curiously, he chose not to, and conveniently used the media, to add a twist of sensationalism and “masala” - good publicity for him and an irresistible story for TRP hungry news channels to chase. No consideration was given to the invasion of privacy and the right to be presumed innocence until proven guilty, both of which Dr Shashi Tharoor legitimately enjoys under our constitutional scheme of things, in addition to the basic ethical premise that he was at the end of the day, just a grieving husband who lost his wife and needed his own space with his family, if not our collective empathy.
Swamy’s claims no matter how many times they were proven wrong continue to dominate the mythical, politically motivated and fabricated narrative in this case, which continues to feed the wild imaginations of the mainstream and social media. Let me give you specific examples.
Subramanian Swamy kept claiming that the AIIMS forensics doctor, Dr Sudhir Gupta, was pressured by Tharoor to modify his post mortem report findings. I remember not less than a dozen one-hour-long discussions, on prime time news spots, held exclusively on this specific point despite the fact, that the AIIMS administration under the then Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, a well-respected BJP minister who obviously had no special affinity for the Congress or its MP Shashi Tharoor, held a special press conference in July 2014 and categorically dismissed these charges. It was quite obvious that Gupta had been using the Sunanda Pushkar case and support from the likes of Swamy, to portray himself as a victim only after internal wrangling within AIIMS had worked against his own vested interest relating to a promotion.
But that was not enough for talking heads on TV and “holier than thou” news anchors running their kangaroo courts at 9 pm each night. Finally, on March 4, 2015 the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) rejected allegations being peddled by the head of the AIIMS forensic department Dr Sudhir Gupta and Subramanian Swamy, that he was ‘pressurised’ to ‘tailor make’ a post-mortem report on Sunanda Pushkar’s death.
Prior to this, Mr Swamy had claimed that the Leela Hotel in Delhi had deliberately tampered with CCTV footage on the floor where Sunanda’s room was located and where she had passed away. This falsehood was also categorically denied by the hotel which issued a statement that all 230 CCTV cameras, including the ten on the said floor were not only operational but its complete footage from January 15 to 17, 2014 (that included footage of the period before her death and the day of her death) were handed over to the Delhi police and its receipt was duly acknowledged by the cops. Another lie busted.
Subramanian Swamy had also claimed in the media that he had personally seen the autopsy video of the late Sunanda Pushkar. Since Dr Sudhir Gupta was the custodian of such material, did anyone ever ask who authorised him to share it with the public or likes of Swamy, in complete breach of medical ethics and propriety? Subramanian Swamy in an interview to TV channels also said that ‘officers of Delhi Police briefed him on the Sunanda matter’.
Shouldn’t Home Minister Rajnath Singh tell us if this is how investigations under Delhi Police are being carried out these days? What’s more, a much marginalised political operative from his party, who makes fanciful claims including stuff like the super-hit film starring Amir Khan-PK was “funded” by ISI, gets access to such sensitive information in an ongoing investigation!
Unfortunately, Swamy’s misleading interventions in this case have been anything but benign attempts to grab fifteen minutes of airtime. They have had much deeper and sinister impact on the complexion of the investigation and the public trial that accompanied it. It is a fact that the medical board that conducted Sunanda’s post mortem (PM) consisted of a seemingly motivated Dr Gupta and his two juniors, who were obliged to follow his line as he wrote their CRs. Initially, the finding in the PM report of “death due to Alprozalam poisoning” was in the subsequent report curiously modified to “poison of unknown nature” even as Swamy drummed up the surround sound narrative for this theory in the media.
The viscera report from CFSL lab, a premier body, had only found caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and paracetamol in Sunanda’s system. The CFSL findings were confirmed by the FSL as well. But it was Dr Gupta, who then lapped up Swamy’s preposterous theory which has now been debunked by the FBI report, stating that it must be a “poison (Swamy claimed it was a Russian poison) that could not be identified in any Indian laboratory!”
A report by no less than a Padma Bhushan awardee and the most respected name in the forensics science field - Prof Dr P Chandra Sekharan to the Health Minister also came to a similar conclusion as the FBI report, when he testified that, “The entire report (by Sudhir Gupta) was an embarrassment to the profession and it made unwarranted assumptions of poisoning and sought to substantiate it by conducting a wild-goose chase for obscure and unknown poisons.”
He added that in his considered opinion “in all probability the death of Sunanda Pushkar was due to the prolonged, over-intake of Acetaminophen while consuming alcohol and her death was accidental and self-induced.” This tallies with the account given by family friend Tej Saraf who spoke about how Sunanda was making delusional claims and taking “fistful of medicines”, which surprisingly was never played up in the media that chose, quite arbitrarily, to rely on the “sexier” version propagated by Swamy.
As a student of law, ethics and media, in conclusion, I have one big question on my mind. If the legal framework of our country says let’s presume a man (Dr Tharoor) is innocent until guilt is established, and if Sunanda’s family, including her biological son Shiv Menon and her brothers have steadfastly stood by Tharoor, claiming that he could never harm her in any way, and if he has from day one cooperated with the SDM probe making himself available as a witness for the Delhi Police, and hasn’t shied away even from lie detector tests then why did we allow the narrative to be so prejudiced and biased against a person who the Delhi Police hasn’t called an accused yet, at the behest of Subramanian Swamy and his ilk of misery hunters, whose propaganda was busted at every stage? Isn’t it “time now” (get the pun?) that we seek an apology from those who have discredited the investigation and used the platform of the media to spread lies?
Should our attempt to seek justice for Sunanda Pushkar be unmindful of the injustice meted out to the person she loved the most?
(The writer is a civil rights activist, founder of PolicySamvad and formerly with the MoPA, Government of India)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)