Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Y S Sachan,whose body was found in a toilet on the unused first floor of the Lucknow jail hospital on Wednesday night,had been missing the entire day,and yet no official noticed his absence or raised an alarm. In fact,Sachans lunch,which was served around 11 am as per the jails schedule was found lying uneaten by his bedside when his absence was first noticed during the evening headcount at 8 pm,sources have told The Indian Express. His body was found shortly after 8.30 pm. Where he was all this while is unknown,but sources said this indicates he could have died long before his body was discovered. This is reinforced by the report of the post mortem,conducted at 11.30 am on Thursday,which puts the probable time since death at about one day. On the instructions of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court today,the state government handed over a copy of the post mortem report to the family which then cremated Sachan this evening. In the jail,two general headcounts of inmates are held every day,the first at 6 am and the second at 8 pm. Within the hospital,there are warders to keep a watch,one warder for 40 inmates. The warders have four-hour shifts,the first of which begins at 8.00 am. Each warder is supposed to inform the next on duty about the status of each inmate at the hospital while handing over charge,said Senior Jail Superintendent S H M Rizvi. Sources said Sachan was in his bed at 6.00 am. He was also there at 8.00 am. At 11.00 am,when lunch was served,Sachan was not there so the attendant left the tray by his bedside. The tray remained there,the food uneaten,all day. Nobody noticed it until Sachan was found missing in the general headcount at 8.00 pm. Rizvi said none of the three warders on duty between 8 am and 8 pm reported that Sachan was missing. None of them mentioned that in the logbook or informed the next warder on duty. Head warder Babu Ram Dubey,who was deputed at the hospital,too did not notice the inmate missing,said Rizvi. Babu Ram Dubey,and the three warders,identified as Pahendra Singh,Anil Kumar Tripathi and Ram Narain Tiwari,have since been suspended. Rizvi said that after Sachans body was found,the warders were summoned and quizzed at length. They admitted they had not seen Sachan all day. The one in the morning shift claimed that he had last seen Dr Sachan around 10.30 am, Rizvi said. The floor where the body was found has no electricity. It was recently built and is not yet ready for use. The jail staff had to carry torches and emergency lights when they went up to search for Sachan. An official said that warders had undone his belt and taken his body out of the toilet. It lay in the corridor when ADG (Prison),the Lucknow DIG and DM reached there.
