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On 11 January 1966, the Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away in office.

He died in Tashkent, at 02:00 on the day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, reportedly due to a heart attack.

In his book Beyond The Lines, journalist Kuldip Nayyar claims that there were some unusual circumstantial evidence:

The bluish tinge and white patches on Shastri’s body were strange and had perturbed his family. There had been no post-mortem and yet there were cut marks on his abdomen, as though his stomach had been washed from the insides.

He also claims that the enquiry into his death was plagued by suspicious deaths.

In the site thequint the following information is given:

Cause? Heart Attack! Yet, a Russian cook was arrested on suspicion of poisoning & let off after hours. Shastri's wife Lalita Devi was shocked to see his body on return. "Why is his body blue?" "Why are there cuts on the stomach?", she asked. People continue to ask: "Why no post-mortem caried out?" Shastri's personal doctor RN Chuch & family die in road accident while on their way testfying before a committee. Shastri's personal attendant Ram Nath meets almost the same fate. Several RTI pleas to declassify documents turned down. "I'm willing to believe my grandfather died of a heart attack. But at least declassify the documents", said Shastri's grandson Sidharth Nath Singh. How the healthy 62-year-old PM with no vices died suddenly is a mystery that's endured till today.

In the site quora Amit Algotar argues that few points which make death of Shastriji suspicious are:

  • The KGB suspected poisoning
  • Shastri’s near and dear ones see a needle of suspicion pointing towards an insider's hand
  • No post mortem was carried out on Shastri’s body
  • RTI responses muddied the water further
  • Where are the records of the first inquiry into his death?
  • What about the witnesses?
  • What of the CIA agent's word?
  • Was the Russian butler involved?
  • Why was Delhi Police asked to handle the retrieval of docs?

Likewise there are countless sites on the internet arguing about this.

So is it just one of those many conspiracy theories without any proof behind it? Or is there any evidence to support the theory that he was really poisoned?

ChrisW
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Sonevol
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  • [Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) What are you hoping that we can do to shed light on a 50-year-old controversy? – Oddthinking Jul 25 '17 at 07:24
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    Just make the answers quality enough to make other sites eclipsed in search engine. – Sonevol Jul 25 '17 at 07:31
  • Is this all - a journalist claiming discoloration and cut marks? No further descriptions? Who had actually observed these things - the journalist and/or 'the family' (who are they?)? No one else claiming that he saw those marks? No pictures I assume? –  Jul 25 '17 at 08:57
  • @JanDoggen There's a BBC article: [Was Mr Shastri murdered?](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2009/08/was_mr_shastri_murdered.html) – ChrisW Jul 25 '17 at 08:59
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    Well my question was very long. Unfortunately it got edited by oddthinking – Sonevol Jul 25 '17 at 08:59
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    Why was the original question so heavily edited? To me this looks more like censorship than 'simplification'. – Adrenaxus Jul 25 '17 at 10:04
  • The only fault was that of plagiarism, but it is impossible to ask such a difficult question without plagiarism – Sonevol Jul 25 '17 at 10:15
  • Assuming all that (original, now deleted) text was a quote from somewhere, you should [format it using quotes](https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/editing-help#simple-blockquotes) and cite the source (e.g. link to the web page, or name the book) that it came from. Also if you're quoting 10 allegations then that's too many for one question; so be clear that you're asking one question (e.g. "was he poisoned?") and not 10 (e.g. "Was the Russian butler involved?"). – ChrisW Jul 25 '17 at 11:15
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    @Adrenaxus: Welcome to Skeptics! Your allegations of censorship are a little rude and a little bewildering. Are you suggesting I *personally* have a stake in the death of a politician in a foreign country before I was born, do you think the CIA is paying me off to stop discussion about conspiracy theories against them, or do you think it is general Stack Exchange policy that moderators clean up confusing questions by newbies to protect any guilty parties from ever being caught? – Oddthinking Jul 25 '17 at 13:32
  • @Sonevol: There was a problem that you weren't properly citing your sources, but it was more than that. For example, Algotar's bullet points do **not** all suggest that there was anything suspicious. The last 5 points are not accusations or claims, but simply questions. This doesn't help your question. It would be better to remove the entire list. – Oddthinking Jul 25 '17 at 13:35
  • Another example is that thequint article doesn't seem to make the claim - they merely [just ask questions](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4017/should-articles-just-asking-questions-be-considered-notable-claims). Their *source* is Nayyar, so this isn't someone with more evidence. It is just a repeat of exactly the same claim. – Oddthinking Jul 25 '17 at 13:38
  • @JanDoggen: The linked Wikipedia page contains a large section describing the allegations. I remain doubtful that we will do any better. – Oddthinking Jul 25 '17 at 13:40
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    @Oddthinking: I merely found it strange that so much of the original question has been deleted provinding "_Simplify_" and "_Make quoting clearer to avoid plagiarism._" as reasons. Coming from stackoverflow, we usually only edit grammatical errors or typos and try to preserve the original question. Pardon me if it sounded a bit rude, no offence intended. – Adrenaxus Jul 25 '17 at 21:55

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