The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday suspended the jailor, the deputy jailor and three other staff members of the Lucknow district jail, following the mysterious death of Deputy Chief Medical Officer (Family Welfare) Y.S. Sachan. Departmental proceedings were initiated against jailor J.P. Srivastava, deputy jailor Sunil Kumar Singh, head warden Babu Ram Dubey and wardens Anil Kumar Tripathi and Ram Narain Tiwari.
Dr. Sachan was found dead in the jail on Wednesday night.
The government, quoting the post-mortem report, said he had committed suicide.
Dr. Sachan was the prime accused in the case of April 2, 2011 murder of CMO (Family Welfare) B.P. Singh. He was charged with plotting the murder of Dr. Singh and of another CMO, Vinod Arya, who was killed earlier in October 2010. Dr. Sachan was to have been produced in court on Thursday for seeking police remand.
“Excessive bleeding”
Since the body of Dr. Sachan bore “nine injury marks, eight caused by a sharp-edged weapon,” the cause of death, according to the autopsy report, was “excessive bleeding.” The government had turned down the demand made by Dr. Sachan's family and Opposition parties for a CBI inquiry.
Family members suspect foul play as the body was found “hanging” from the window grill in the toilet on the first floor of the jail.When journalists asked how the death could be suicide as the body bore nine injury marks, Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said: “ Prima facie , it is a case of suicide but since a judicial probe is on more facts would emerge.” The probe by a judicial magistrate was ordered late on Wednesday night.
As for the plea for a CBI inquiry, Mr. Shekhar Singh said since the incident happened subsequent to a crime (murder of Dr. Singh), “there is no reason to hand it over to any other agency, besides the three accused have been arrested and [they] have admitted to committing the crime.”
Announcing the findings of the autopsy report, the Cabinet Secretary said Dr. Sachan's body bore injury marks, eight caused by a sharp-edged weapon — two marks on the neck, two on the right elbow, two on the left elbow, one on the thigh and one on the left wrist. Injury marks were also found on the neck. A sharp-edged blade was found at the site of the incident.
The Cabinet Secretary said the post-mortem conducted on Thursday in Lucknow by five doctors was videographed and Dr. Sachan's family members were present on the campus. The autopsy was performed at the behest of his family members.
