Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday
set a three-month deadline for the CBI to complete the probe
into the mysterious death of deputy chief medical officer YS
Sachan at the district jail here.
The Lucknow bench comprising justices Pradeep Kant and
Ritu Raj Awasthi passed the order on a PIL seeking probe by
the central agency into the death of Sachan, whose body was
found with multiple injuries in the jail hospital toilet on
June 22 night.
The bench said that in its opinion, the CBI is the
appropriate independent agency which needs to be entrusted
with the task of investigating the custodial death of Sachan.
It said that the probe should be completed expeditiously.
At the time of pronouncement of the order, Additional
Advocate General JN Mathur produced a copy of the state
government order issued yesterday recommending a CBI probe
into the case.
"Consequent to our order and in view of the decision
taken by the state government itself, the Director, CBI is
directed to take charge of the investigation immediately from
the local police," the bench said.
The court directed that reasons, circumstances and the
cause of death of Sachan be investigated by the CBI.
"The CBI shall forthwith depute an officer to receive
from the respondents all records relating to Sachan`s death
and the respondents shall immediately hand over all such
records to such officer," it said.
"The State shall provide all assistance and logistic
support. The investigation shall be completed expeditiously,
say, within a maximum period of three months," it said.
Arrested on charges of National Rural Health Mission
fund embezzlement, 52-year-old Sachan was also named as the
key conspirator in the murder case of CMO B P Singh in April
following the arrest of three shooters hired to kill him.
Bowing to strident demands, UP Chief Minister Mayawati
yesterday ordered a CBI inquiry into the death of Sachan.
The decision came on the back of a judicial probe
finding that the deputy CMO`s death prima facie was a case of
murder.
The state government and police had initially claimed
Sachan committed suicide. The postmortem, however, revealed
nine injury marks on the body including on the neck, elbows,
wrists and thigh.
PTI
