By IANS,
Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has reserved till July 14 its verdict on a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of deputy chief medical officer Y.S. Sachan in jail last month.
The division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi Tuesday decided to reserve the judgment on a petition filed by local journalist Sachidanand Gupta.
Sachan’s family has moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe. The apex court would hear the case July 14.
In the high court, Uttar Pradesh government counsel led by Additional Advocate General Jaideep Mathur opposed the petition and insisted that the court could constitute a special investigation team (SIT), including a CBI official, for investigation under its own supervision.
Sachan, the prime accused in chief medical officer B.P. Singh’s murder, was June 22 found dead in mysterious circumstances in the washroom of Lucknow district jail hospital where he was under treatment.
He was found dead just a day before he was to be taken to court with other three accused – Ram Krishna Verma, Anand Tewari and Vinod Sharma.
Jail authorities and police dismissed his death as a case of suicide, amidst demands by Sachan’s family for a CBI inquiry.
The state government last month ordered a judicial inquiry by Lucknow Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Rajesh Upadhaya.
The CJM submitted his report to the government Monday confirming ‘homicide’ (murder) as the cause Sachan’s death and dismissed the police theory of suicide. The 76-page report blamed the jail authorities for the murder.