Sunanda Pushkar's death: Ghulam Nabi Azad rubbishes 'pressure' claims

, July 5: Former health minister

on Saturday rubbished claims of the head of AIIMS's forensic medicine department that he was pressured to manipulate the autopsy report of

and questioned Sudhir Gupta's credibility, saying he can "shoot his mouth off anytime against anybody".

[Read: Subramanian Swamy writes to PM Modi for probe]

"Can I even think of such a stupid thing? Media knows me, entire country knows what kind of person Ghulam Nabi Azad is, I can't even think of doing such a criminal thing," Azad told reporters at the Congress headquarters.

Citing newspaper reports over certain allegations levelled against Gupta in past by his colleagues and superiors, the senior Congress leader questioned his credibility.

"You must have read in newspaper reports about credibility of the person. He can shoot his mouth off anytime against anybody," Azad said.

Azad said Gupta could shoot his mouth off anytime against anybody

Meanwhile, Gupta said on Saturday that his duty was to pursue the truth in the case. Gupta said he would soon interact with the media, as per lawful procedure, to clarify his stand. "I'll answer according to the government's rules and the rights of a government servant... My duty is to pursue the truth in the Sunanda Pushkar's post-mortem case," Gupta said.

Gupta, who headed a three-member team that did the post mortem on the body of Pushkar had reportedly filed an affidavit before central administrative tribunal in a service matter in which he had levelled the allegation. AIIMS had rejected the charge.

Sunanda, the wife of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a 5-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of 17 January, a day after her twitter spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over an alleged affair with Tharoor.

PTI