Sachan's family moves SC, seeks CBI probe into his death

[1]

Family members of Uttar Pradesh's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Y.S. Sachan today moved the Supreme Court for a CBI probe into his mysterious death inside the Lucknow jail.

An advocate, appearing for the Sachan's family, apprised the bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph about a petition filed in the court's registry and sought its urgent hearing. The bench, however, asked the advocate to tell the registry to slate the petition for proper hearing. Arrested for his alleged role in the murder of Lucknow CMO B P Singh, purportedly to suppress a scam involving financial irregularities and embezzlement of National Rural Health Mission funds, Sachan was found dead inside the toilet of Lucknow district jail hospital on June 22 night under mysterious circumstances. The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

The police had said that following his arrest, Sachan was admitted to the jail hospital for treatment of general ailment and had undergone angiography but he committed suicide. His death came a day before a court was to take up the police plea for his remand and those of three others.

Sachan was named in the CMO murder case as main accused by police following the arrest of three persons by the state's Special Task Force on June 17.

Singh was shot dead by unidentified persons on April 2 morning, when he had gone out for a walk. Sachan's name was also linked to the murder of another CMO (Family Welfare) Vinod Kumar Arya who was shot dead in October last year near his residence also during a morning walk.

A Special Task Force had on June 17 arrested three persons - Ram Krishna Verma, Anand Tewari and Vinod Sharma - who had allegedly confessed to the crime and named Sachan as the main conspirator. Sachan was already in jail as preliminary inquiries had pointed an accusing finger at him.

The Deputy CMO was arrested immediately after Singh's murder when the investigating agencies detected swindling of funds to the tune of several crore of rupees in the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission in the state.