Dr Sudhir Gupta, the chairman of the AIIMS medical board, claimed that actor Sushant Singh Rajput was “murdered” in an audio clip accessed by Times Now media.
In the leaked audio tape, Dr Gupta, the head of the AIIMS team formed on CBI request for an expert medical opinion in the case, claimed that the actor didn’t die by suicide but was murdered.
The medical board chief had reportedly made the statement after looking at the pictures of Rajput.
Dr Gupta’s leaked audio admission contradicts the medical team’s findings submitted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday.
In its report, the panel of AIIMS forensic experts has ruled out murder claims and called it a case of hanging and death by suicide, rejecting the claims of poisoning and strangling made by the actor's family and their lawyer.
“There were no injuries on the body other than of hanging. There were no marks of struggle or scuffle on the body and clothes of the deceased,” Dr Gupta said in board’s findings.
The medical board of AIIMS forensic experts, headed by Dr Gupta, was set up in August after the CBI requested it to look into the medical files related to Rajput's death, study the autopsy, and viscera reports and give an expert medical opinion in the case.
Earlier today, sources within AIIMS forensic team said that the panel consisting of senior doctors had probed all angles and concluded that Rajputdied by suicide. Dr Gupta also reiterated that Rajput’s death is a case of suicide by hanging.
Meanwhile, sources within CBI said that there is no ambiguity on the cause of death, adding that it is probing abetment to suicide angle.
Rajput’s family lawyer Vikas Singh rebuffed AIIMS panel findings on the case and said that he was highly perturbed by the report. He also said that the CBI must constitute a new forensic team to look into medical files of the case.
Singh had earlier claimed that a doctor, who was a part of the AIIMS team, had told him “long back” that late actor's photos indicated that it was allegedly death by strangulation, not suicide.
“The doctor who is part of the AIIMS team had told me long back that the photos sent by me indicated 200% that it's death by strangulation and not suicide," Singh had tweeted.
The 34-year-old actor was found hanging at his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra on June 14.
