Sunanda death row: Azad questions Gupta's credibility

Breaking his silence, former Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday rubbished claims of the head of AIIMS' forensic medicine department that he was pressured to manipulate the autopsy report of Sunanda Pushkar and questioned Sudhir Gupta's credibility, saying he can "shoot his mouth off anytime against anybody".

"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 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.

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