No evidence,CBI to file closure report

After 10 months of probe,the CBI seems all set to file a closure report in the case pertaining to the death of Deputy CMO Yogendra Singh Sachan in June last year.

After 10 months of probe,the CBI seems all set to file a closure report in the case pertaining to the death of Deputy CMO Yogendra Singh Sachan in June last year. The agency has cited lack of evidence to confirm his death as a suicide or to unravel the conspiracy and fix responsibility in case it was a murder as its reason for closure.

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

Gaurav Mehrotra,the counsel who argued the PIL on which the High Court had ordered a CBI probe in July last year,told The Indian Express that on March 15,the court had asked the CBI to complete 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.

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CBI sources said the closure report contained reports of forensic experts from Delhi CFSL and AIIMS,who had questioned a panel of doctors who conducted the autopsy. Asked about reasons for not taking samples of the viscera for lab tests,the doctors reportedly told the experts that the police had not requested for it,sources said.

The experts also discussed with the doctors the injury marks found on Sachans body. Eight of these were ante-mortem,caused by some sharp-edged weapon,and one post-mortem ligature mark on the neck,caused by hanging,said sources. The experts did not give a confirmed opinion about the possibility of Sachan committing suicide.

The report gives extensive details of the investigation,including questioning of over 160 witnesses,scanning of over 100 documents,and findings of polygraph test on seven jail officials who were suspected of concealing facts and destroying evidence. The report mentions irresponsible handling of the case by the Lucknow police and local forensic lab,leading to destruction of evidence.

The murders of two CMOs V K Arya and B P Singh and Sachans death had led to the uncovering of a multi-crore scam in the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh. The CBI arrested the then family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and several others in connection with the scam.

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According to the police,fights over kickbacks in contracts led Sachan to plot the murders of Arya and Singh. Sachan was found dead in a toilet on the first floor of Lucknow jail on June 22 last year. The police claimed that he had committed suicide,but his family alleged that he had been murdered.