Sachan case was suicide, not murder: Allahabad HC

Lucknow, March 1

The Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench has upheld the CBI probe which had termed the death of deputy CMO Y.S. Sachan in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam as a suicide.

Setting aside a July 2022 order passed by CBI special judicial magistrate that termed the death to be "murder", a bench of Justice D.K. Singh said" "There should have been overwhelming material and evidence to ignore the CBI's closure report. There has been nothing before the magistrate to discard the reports submitted by the CBI.

"The findings of the CBI have been in detail to highlight as to how detailed scientific, meticulous and fair investigation was carried out for reaching the conclusion that it was not a case of homicide, but suicide."

Sachan was arrested in connection with the embezzlement of NRHM funds and was in jail when the police charged him with plotting the murders of his two seniors.

He was found dead in a deserted section of Lucknow jail on June 22, 2011, a day before he had to appear in court to record his statement in connection with the two murders and his role in the embezzlement of funds.

The incident made national headlines.

The FIR of his death was lodged with Gosainganj police station on June 26, 2011, against unknown persons.

The judicial inquiry report prepared on July 11, 2011 declared Sachan's death to be a murder.

Later, the high court handed over the probe to the CBI on July 14, 2011.

After investigation, the CBI declared Sachan's death as a case of suicide and filed a closure report on September 27, 2012.

His widow Malti challenged the closure report.

The CBI court accepted her protest application and directed the probe agency to investigate further into the case.

However, the CBI again filed a closure report in the case on August 9, 2017.

The court on November 19, 2019, rejected the closure report and registered Malti's application as a complaint case.

In the course of hearing on the complaint case, Malti pleaded that the material already on record was sufficient to constitute offences under section 302 (murder) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against the accused.

On July 12, 2022, CBI special judicial magistrate Samriddhi Mishra had declared the death to be a case of "murder" and summoned key police and jail officials.