By IANS,
Lucknow: The wife of deputy chief medical officer Y.S. Sachan Friday demanded that a case of murder be registered in the mysterious death of her husband in a jail in the Uttar Pradesh capital.
In an application to Lucknow Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) D.K. Thakur, Malti Sachan sought immediate registration of her husband’s death afresh as a case of “murder” and not “suicide”.
“My husband has been killed in jail to protect some highly-placed people responsible for large-scale pilferage of funds in the state family welfare department,” she accused.
“He was initially charged only for allegedly committing financial irregularities in the department. But then he was suddenly dragged into the murder case of chief medical officer B.P.Singh,” she added.
Drawing attention to the multiple wounds on her husband’s body, the doctor’s wife wondered: “How the state police was still harping on the suicide theory when there was more than visible evidence of murder?”
Top government officials, however, did not comment on her plea. “We are not aware of any such application. It will be for the DIG to take a decision,” Principal Home Secretary Kunwar Fateh Bahadur said.
Sachan’s elder brother R.K. Sachan told reporters that the family was contemplating legal action to force the Uttar Pradesh government to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
“We have no faith in the state investigating agencies. As the government is not paying heed to our CBI inquiry demand, we are planning to move court,” he said.
The state government Thursday ruled out the possibility of handing over the case to the investigating agency.
“There is no reason why we should transfer the investigation,” state Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told reporters.
Rejecting the government’s claim that prima facie it appeared that Y.S. Sachan committed suicide, the doctor’s family members said they will perform the cremation only after an assurance about a CBI inquiry. They have bought a coffin to preserve the body until then.
Y.S.Sachan, the prime accused in B.P.Singh’s murder, was found dead in mysterious circumstances inside a Lucknow district jail toilet Wednesday evening.
Sachan’s post-mortem examination report mentioned “excessive bleeding” as the cause of death and talked about nine wounds on his body. But the officials still rule out murder.
“According to the post-mortem report, eight of the nine wounds were caused by a sharp-edged blade, while one was a mark left around his neck,” the cabinet secretary told reporters.
He said: “While two wounds were found on his neck, two each were on the right and left elbows, one on the left thigh and one on his wrist.”
The cabinet secretary sought to suggest that Sachan first tried to strangulate himself using his own belt but when that failed, he used a blade to cut his veins at different places following which he bled to death.
“Prima facie, it is a case of suicide, but I would not like to draw any definite conclusion, since a judicial probe is already underway,” he said.
Sachan was facing charges of not only masterminding Singh’s murder but for also giving money for what was officially termed as “contract killing.”
Sachan’s death is the third in succession over alleged bungling in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds in Uttar Pradesh.
Before Singh was gunned down during his morning walk just outside his residence in Lucknow’s posh Gomati Nagar locality April 2, his predecessor Vinod Arya was also shot dead by masked motorcyclists, just as he stepped out of his home for his morning walk in October 2010.
Award of huge contracts for supply of goods and equipment under the centrally-funded NRHM and large-scale financial bungling were officially stated to be the cause behind both the murders.
Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was moved before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the death Wednesday.