SSR family questions AIIMS' 'faulty' report, Dr Sudhir Gupta's conduct

A week after the AIIMS-Delhi submitted its report to the CBI in Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case to rule out murder, the legal team of Sushant's family has written to CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla to claim that the medico-legal report by the AIIMS medical board was "faulty".

In the letter, the legal team represented by Varun Singh said: "I have been reading in the media about the forensic report submitted by the AIIMS to the CBI with regard to the opinion expressed by the agency in the matter of Sushant Singh Rajput's death on June 14. I have also seen some doctors on the AIIMS team come on TV and make statements with regard to the forensic examination done by the team."

The letter said that despite several efforts to get a copy of the report, there was no response from AIIMS board head Dr Sudhir Gupta. "I am accordingly writing this letter on the premise that the news report regarding the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) opinion is correct."

"The leaked report, if correct, amounts to drawing a biased and boastful conclusion from insufficient evidence," the legal team said.

Raising questions, the letter said that AIIMS was not to do a post-mortem but only to express its opinion on an autopsy report submitted by Mumbai's Cooper Hospital as the AIIMS did not get to examine Sushant's body and thus form a firsthand opinion about the cause of death.

"Dr Sudhir Gupta has been giving media interviews about the sensitive case right from Day One, questioning Cooper Hospital doctors for the 'dubious' autopsy and Maharashtra Police for a hurried post-mortem and contamination and non-preservation of the scene of crime," the letter added.

The letter also pointed to various other infirmities like the post-mortem done at the Mumbai hospital in the night without any Magistrate's order for such an exercise, no videotaping of autopsy, and non-preservation of sufficient viscera for future examination.

In the letter, the legal team said that Cooper Hospital doctors' post-mortem report did not mention injuries on the body and thus no opinion on the cause of such injuries. "The protocol necessary to be observed in such post-mortems was not followed, as opined by several forensic experts from all over the world," the legal team observed.

"There were several other infirmities that could be pointed out by a genuine forensic examination but, somehow, the same were left out by the AIIMS team, as expressed by one of the doctors in his interview telecast by a TV channel," the letter read.

The legal team also raised questions on the conduct of Dr Sudhir Gupta.

"The conduct of Dr Gupta is unethical, unprofessional, and in contravention of government service conduct rules and MCI guidelines. This criminal misadventure on his part has undermined the public trust in a premier institution like AIIMS."

"It has created doubts in the minds of millions of people about the fairness of investigation," it further added.

The legal team asserted that the AIIMS report, if at all, could have only specified the cause of death, that is, by hanging and could not have gone on to say that it was a case of suicide because that is something which only the CBI can decide after complete investigation.

"The CBI may also inquire into the circumstances that led Dr Gupta to indulge in such unprofessional conduct that threatens to jeopardise the course of investigation and help wrong-doers escape the clutches of law. It is requested only such medical report that is true appraisal of available evidence is relied upon and not the present one that patently seems to be a fictional concoction to help the culprits," said the legal team.

The AIIMS panel report questioned the absence of timing of death in the Cooper Hospital's autopsy report and pointed towards dimly-lit post-mortem room at the Mumbai hospital, sources said, adding that poisoning angle too was ruled out.

Sushant's autopsy was done by three Cooper Hospital doctors on June 14 night.

The CBI officials have remained tight-lipped on the AIIMS report.

Dr Gupta, meanwhile, in a statement said that the AIIMS Medical Board has expressed very clearly and conclusively its final medico-legal opinion in this case.

He said that the contents of the opinion shared with the CBI cannot be shared with anyone as the matter is sub judice.

A team of AIIMS Forensic Department was roped in by the CBI to give its medico-legal opinion into the death of Sushant.

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