Sachan death: CBI can’t say murder or suicide, set to file closure report

After 10 months of investigation, the CBI is likely to file a closure report in the case of the sensational death of Deputy CMO Dr Yogendra Singh Sachan in Lucknow jail in June last year, stating that there was lack of evidence to confirm it as suicide, or to unravel the conspiracy and fix responsibility in case it was a murder.

The CBI team had prepared the closure report and sent it to their headquarters in Delhi last month. Senior agency officials and the legal cell have since cleared the report, said sources.

Gaurav Mehrotra, the counsel who argued the PIL on which the high court had ordered the CBI investigation in July last year, told The Indian Express that on March 15, the court had asked the agency to complete its investigation by May 15, but it had neither submitted a report nor an application requesting for more time until Thursday.

"If they wanted more time, they should have filed an application before May 15", Mehrotra said.

Dr Sachan's death, and the murders of two successive CMOs — Dr V K Arya and Dr B P Singh — within six months had led to the uncovering of a multi-billion rupee scam in the implementation for National Rural Health Mission in the state.

The CBI has arrested the then family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, the then principal secretary of family welfare Pradeep Mathur and several others in cases linked with the NRHM scam.

According to the Lucknow police, Dr Sachan had organised the murders of Dr Arya and Dr Singh in fights over kickbacks in departmental contracts. Also, Dr Sachan feared that Dr Arya and Dr Singh could create problems for him by ordering inquiries against him, the police said.

Dr Sachan was found dead in a toilet on the unlit first floor of the Lucknow jail on June 22 last year. The police claimed he had committed suicide. His family, however, alleged that Dr Sachan had been killed in order to prevent him from making certain disclosures during a court appearance the next day.

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