
New Delhi, July 6: Delhi police today suggested that the senior Madhya Pradesh doctor whose death in a hotel here yesterday has been linked to the high-profile Vyapam scam may have died of excessive drinking.
"Prima facie evidence" do not suggest "foul play" so far, police commissioner B.S. Bassi told reporters, while another senior officer told The Telegraph there were "no visible external injuries" on Dr Arun Sharma's body.
"But we are probing whether someone injected him with any lethal substance," the officer said.
"Our team is scanning CCTV footage from the hotel and questioning staff to find out whether anyone visited his suite."
Sharma, 64, was found dead in his bed with an "almost empty" 750ml bottle of whisky he had bought that afternoon, officers said.
They said Sharma's son had told them his father was a "habitual drinker" and suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes - risk factors for heart disease that don't go well with heavy drinking, especially in the aged.
The son said Sharma also took anti-depressant medication, which generally carries an alcohol warning, officers said.
Strips of six brands of tablets - including Glycomet (diabetes), Pexep (depression) and Olmezest (hypertension) - were found on a bedside table in Sharma's hotel suite. "He had puked in the bathroom," an officer said.
Sharma was dean of a Jabalpur medical college and was helping state police probe the Vyapam exam scam, which has entangled powerful people and seen at least 26 accused and witnesses die in two years, some under mysterious circumstances.
Speculation of foul play swirled because he died a day after a Delhi-based TV journalist's sudden, suspicious death in Madhya Pradesh following an interview with the parents of a girl who was found dead after being implicated in the scandal.
Sharma's predecessor as dean of the same medical college too had died under suspicious circumstances two years ago while probing the professional entrance exam scam's effect on his college.
Sharma had arrived in Delhi on his way to Agartala on official business. A five-member team at Safdarjung Hospital today conducted the post-mortem. Sharma's viscera (organs) have been sent for forensic examination.
A preliminary probe revealed Sharma had booked his suite for Rs 5,000 under a package that included dinner and breakfast.
After his flight landed at 2.10pm on Saturday, a hotel car picked him up. He stopped on the way to buy the bottle of whisky, as borne out by the liquor shop CCTV.
Sharma came down to the hotel restaurant at 7.10pm and had snacks, according to staff, before returning to his suite half an hour later.
He had told the staff to wake him at 4.30am as he had to catch a 6.10am flight to Agartala. After repeated calls, the door was opened with a master key. The police were informed at 5am.
Phone records suggest Sharma made 10 calls during the day, officers said, including one to an old friend in Chanakyapuri. The police believe Sharma did not meet anybody in Delhi.
Journalist probe
No internal or external injuries have been found on the body of TV journalist Akshay Singh who died frothing at the mouth in Jhabua on Saturday, according to the post-mortem report, PTI said.
But the doctors who did the autopsy at a hospital in Dahod, Gujarat, have "reserved" their opinion on the cause of death till a viscera analysis is done at AIIMS, Delhi.
An officer was quoted as saying that Singh, 38, had an enlarged heart but refused to elaborate on the reason.