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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Wed Jan 7, 2015, 03:19 PM Jan 2015

Sunanda Pushkar poisoned with polonium?

Source: Asian Age

Giving a fresh twist to the Sunanda Pushkar case, senior BJP leader, Dr Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday claimed that there was enough evidence suggesting that Pushkar was administered a radioactive substace — polonium 210. Polonium was believed to have been used on former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Filing a murder case against “unknown persons” the Delhi police on Tuesday claimed that Sunanda was either orally poisoned or it was injected.

After Sunanda was found dead in a five-star hotel suite this newspaper was the first to report that she had allegedly died of “poisoning”.

<snip>

Speaking of the polonium, Dr Swamy told this newspaper that Sunanda was “killed with a substance which is rare and highly radioactive”. He claimed that the substance “has a devastating effect on the body” and that “in this case, a higher dose must have been administered as there was an urgency since she was in a hotel and her death could not be delayed.”

<snip>

It may be recalled that five weeks after Sunanda’s death, Dr Swamy had claimed that she was killed in a “professional way”. Earlier, the BJP leader had even written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a CBI investigation into the case. Importantly, Dr Swamy had linked the death of Sunanda Pushkar with the alleged IPL money laundering row, claiming that she “knew too much”.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.asianage.com/india/sunanda-pushkar-poisoned-polonium-790



Sunanda Pushkar died a year ago. It has taken this long for police to declare it a murder.
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Sunanda Pushkar poisoned with polonium? (Original Post) bananas Jan 2015 OP
No shit? Recursion Jan 2015 #1
AIIMS doctor vindicated, faced flak for stand bananas Jan 2015 #2
SIT to probe Sunanda Pushkar's death: Delhi Police bananas Jan 2015 #3
iirc there was another death by polonium involving the russians belzabubba333 Jan 2015 #4
Government poison. DeSwiss Jan 2015 #5
Polonium 210 is highly restricted PeoViejo Jan 2015 #6

bananas

(27,509 posts)
2. AIIMS doctor vindicated, faced flak for stand
Wed Jan 7, 2015, 03:23 PM
Jan 2015
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/AIIMS-doctor-vindicated-faced-flak-for-stand/articleshow/45785230.cms

AIIMS doctor vindicated, faced flak for stand
TNN | Jan 7, 2015, 02.40 AM IST

NEW DELHI: With the Delhi Police concluding that Sunanda Pushkar was murdered, the stand taken by Dr Sudhir Gupta has been vindicated. Gupta, head of the forensics department at AIIMS, conducted Pushkar's post-mortem. He was the first person to raise the possibility of her murder.

"It is a case of sudden, unnatural death," Gupta said on January 19, 2014, hours after completing the post-mortem. The autopsy report submitted to the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) investigating the case went on to add that death had been caused due to poisoning, which could be suicidal or homicidal.

<snip>

Gupta was promoted as the head of the forensics and toxicology department in August 2013, following the retirement Dr T D Dogra. But in year 2014, days before the Lok Sabha election results were declared, the governing body of the institute approved a proposal to promote another doctor from the forensics department. Gupta has filed a complaint with the Central Administrative Tribunal against the decision. Among others, the appeal mentions exchange of mails between Tharoor and AIIMS officials to back his claims about trying to influence investigations.

The mails mentioned a report by an independent doctor that speculated the possibility of Sunanda dying a natural death— a claim trashed by Gupta in his autopsy reports.

Gupta has handled many high profile cases, including the Shivani Bhatnagar, Jessica Lal, and the Nitish Katara murder cases.

<snip>

bananas

(27,509 posts)
3. SIT to probe Sunanda Pushkar's death: Delhi Police
Wed Jan 7, 2015, 03:31 PM
Jan 2015
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/SIT-to-probe-Sunanda-Pushkars-death-Delhi-Police/articleshow/45789554.cms

SIT to probe Sunanda Pushkar's death: Delhi Police
TNN | Jan 7, 2015, 11.44 AM IST

NEW DELHI: A special investigation team has been set up to probe Sunanda Pushkar's death, Delhi Police chief BS Bassi said on Wednesday.

"We have constituted a SIT that will be monitored by DCPs and ACPs," Bassi told reporters.

"As far as questioning of Shashi Tharoor is concerned, it was done and it will be done again if necessary," Bassi said.

<snip>

 

DeSwiss

(27,137 posts)
5. Government poison.
Wed Jan 7, 2015, 06:08 PM
Jan 2015
- Or those ''above'' the government.

K&R

Polonium is a chemical element with symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores. Applications of polonium are few. They include heaters in space probes, antistatic devices, and sources of neutrons and alpha particles.

210Po is an alpha emitter that has a half-life of 138.4 days; it decays directly to its stable daughter isotope, 206Pb. A milligram (5 curies) of 210Po emits about as many alpha particles per second as 5 grams of 226Ra. A few curies (1 curie equals 37 gigabecquerels, 1 Ci = 37 GBq) of 210Po emit a blue glow which is caused by excitation of surrounding air.

Polonium is a very rare element in nature because of the short half-life of all its isotopes. It is found in uranium ores at about 0.1 mg per metric ton (1 part in 1010), which is approximately 0.2% of the abundance of radium. The amounts in the Earth's crust are not harmful. Polonium has been found in tobacco smoke from tobacco leaves grown with phosphate fertilizers.

Because of the small abundance, isolation of polonium from natural sources is a very tedious process. The largest batch was extracted in the first half of the 20th century by processing 37 tonnes of residues from radium production. It contained only 40 Ci (1.5 TBq) (9 mg) of polonium-210. Nowadays, polonium is obtained by irradiating bismuth with high-energy neutrons or protons.

More


So what does Polonium do to a person?

It is actually harmless when it's outside the body, but inside, it becomes one of the deadliest substances known.

An amount equivalent to the size of a particle of dust is lethal. link
 

PeoViejo

(2,178 posts)
6. Polonium 210 is highly restricted
Wed Jan 7, 2015, 07:09 PM
Jan 2015

since it is used as part of nuclear triggers in some weapons.

Only a Governmental Entity, and few at that, would have access to any quantity that could cause Death in the near-term.

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